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THE JAZZ 



PATRIOTDSM 

ijJn ylnWwar "Play) 

by 
FANNY BIXBY SPENCER 



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GEO. W. MOYLE PUB. CO. 

337 EAST THIRD ST. 

LONG BEACH. CALIFORNIA 



pre 55 -25 






NOV17'25 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 
INTRODUCTION 

During the years 1917-1918 while the country in which 
I happened to have been born was weltering in the de- 
bauchery of nations called the Great War, certain things 
took place at home which are not being shown up in their 
true light in the history books which the public is now 
receiving. We find them mentioned sometimes as base 
digressions of conduct on the part of a few stubborn, 
radicals or referred to as crimes of terrorist reds, but 
most frequently we notice the reactionary press ignoring 
them with great care and shrewdness. The military party 
today would like to have the people forget that Pacifists 
and non-conformists existed during the war. Gladly would 
they bury their memory in a grave of oblivion so deep 
that no inquiring posterity might unearth it, but this is 
not possible. The war heretics v/ho endured the defama- 
tions and persecutions of their nationalistic and belligerent 
contemporaries have shown themselves of such stuff that 
the future will have to reckon with them, and the sooner 
they are recognized at their full social value the sooner 
will the world's progress be assured. 

In writing and publishing this play which deals with 
actual facts and circumstances of the war period, I have 
had a two-fold intent — to draw a picture of life among 
the stay-at-homes and to bring to light the elements of a 
profound and misunderstood philosophy. As a picture 
my work may be too literal for estheticism. Art, we are 
told, has no purpose behind it, but on the other hand, we 
are privileged to use any m.eans we m.ay fancy to express 
what is burning within us, leaving the result to the tender 
mercies of our critics. As an exposition of the doctrine 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

of non-resistance the play is necessarily inadequate. Only 
a bare suggestion can be given of the theory and practice 
of pacifism, but if it offers even a rudimentary answer to 
the question, "What must we do to be saved from future 
wars?" it is fulfilling its mission. 

A dissenter from the religion of patriotism must be 
willing to endure public censure and must be able to keep 
his eyes fixed on an iridescent future beyond the gray 
mists of the present. Otherwise his is an unhappy lot. I 
make no apologies for certain unpopular sentiments ex- 
pressed by some of m.y characters, for it is my sincere 
conviction that war is wholly dishonorable, that national 
patriotism is essentially an attribute of war, and that the 
only way in which this super-curse of the ages can be 
thwarted and in time universally discredited as a means 
of settling world affairs is by carrying on the strike of the 
Conscientious Objectors, which as a coherent moral force 
had its inception in this war. 

That I may forestall certain expected accusations, I 
wish to make a few explanations. In the interim of peace 
war-hysteria is quickly forgotten and it may be said by 
som.e of my readers that I have overdrawn instances of 
this hysteria, but my own experience and the experience 
of many of my friends and acquaintances during the war 
form the groundwork upon which all incidents of the play 
are constructed. The difficulty has been to color suffici- 
ently, for the most astonishing things of war are the real 
happenings, whether one's viewpoint is the front or the 
extreme rear. To guard against extravagance in descrip- 
tion, I have in some cases subjected fiction entirely to 
actual fact and have repeated words exactly as I heard 
them. It must not be inferred that the play is intended as 

iv 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

an attack upon American patriotism exclusively. I found 
it necessary to give the action an American setting because 
I am more familiar with the local color of my native 
country than of other countries, but in spirit the play Is 
equally applicable to any country and to any war. 

FANNY BIXBY SPENCER. 

Costa Mesa, Calif., 
December, 1920. 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 



CHARACTERS OF THE PLAY: 

Mrs. Holden, a Pacifist. 
Helen^ her daughter, a teacher. 
Mrs. McConnell, an erst-while Wilsontan. 
JOSEPH; her son, a Conscientious Objector. 
Henry Schweitzer, a German-American. 
Mrs. Schweitzer, his wife. 
Grossmutter Schweitzer, his another. 
Mrs. Calkins (Katherine), a feather-weight pat- 
riot. 

Mrs. Wickersheim, a heavy-weight patriot. 
Mrs. Smith, a frenzied patriot. 

Mrs. Davis, 1 ,^,,.,,,,^i^,,^/ patriots. 
Mrs. Baker, j ^ 

President, Secretary and Members of the Ladies* 
Aid Society. 

Mr. Thorp, the minister. 

Sergeant Murry, ) r ^j^^ ^^-^^ ^^^ ^ ^^^^ 

Officer Green, j 

A Liberty Bond Solicitor. 

Time: During the war. 

Place: Somewhere in the United States. 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 
ACT I. 

Summer of 1917. 

The Sunday school room of a church. At the right is 
a small low platform upon which a table and two or three 
chairs are placed. Near by is a piano. Facing the plat- 
form chairs are arranged in rows nearly filling the room. 
On the wall directly back of the platform a large Amer- 
ican flag is draped, and on the rear wall a service flag of 
broad dimensions hangs conspicuously. The center of the 
service flag is only partly covered with stars, a blank 
space at the bottom indicating that the poll is not com- 
plete. Four or five pictures of young men in uniform are 
hanging on each side of the service flag. Sunday school 
charts, texts, etc., also adorn the walls. 

A meeting of the Ladies' Aid Society is about to con- 
vene. The Secretary sits at the farther end of the table 
writing and looking over papers. Through an open door 
leading from a hallway on the left, women are entering. 
Most of them carry large creton knitting bags. Some seat 
themselves and take out their knitting, which consists of 
socks, sweaters, etc., of khaki yarn. Others stand or move 
about the room greeting each other. Mrs. Holden and 
Mrs. Schweitzer, who do not carry knitting bags, enter 
together, conversing. 

Mrs. Schweitzer {who speaks with a German ac- 
'cent) . I do not know how to do. I do not know how to 
think. I cannot at all think, for so my throat catches me 
If I think (puts her hand to her throat convulsively), I 
cry all of the night through again every night. 

Mrs. Holden. How soon does your son go to the 
war? 

Mrs. Schweitzer. He goes to the soldier camp al- 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

ready next week. They take him to France across how 
soon I do not know. They tell us nothing. Every day 
the black terribleness grows more. 

Mrs. Holden. Yes, the times are closing in on us 
like a vise 

Mrs. Schweitzer. They take from me all what I 
have left. 

Mrs. Holden. Have you no other children? 

Mrs. Schweitzer. Already in the old country I 
have buried them. The last one Carl, my big boy — they 
took him to the army. A bad year that was. So many 
with the fever died by the barracks. They sent his body 
home. After that I said always to my husband, "Let us 
go to America. In America it is not so that they take 
our sons to the army." William he was a little boy still. 
I thought to save him from the army. 

Mrs. Holden. America, the world's refuge from 
militarism ! 

Mrs. Schweitzer. And now yet here in America 
they take him to the army. 

Mrs. Holden. The democracy of the selective draft, 
as our law makers are pleased to call it. Does William 
w^ant to go to war? 

Mrs. Schweitzer. He says nothing. He dassent. 
They would call him '^slacker". 

Mrs. Holden. "Slacker" — that Is the catch-word, 
the psychological goad with which they drive them as cattle 
to the slaughter. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. To fight against my own brud- 
ders' boys he must go. Oh mine God, where Is the Chris- 
tian of it? Where is the Christian of It? 

Mrs. Holden. It Is the acme of Christian hypo- 
crisy. 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Mrs. Schweitzer. They take from us with the 
draft our sons away and are not satisfied to do so yet 
enough. They tell us we must also like to give our sons 
to the war. 

Mrs. Holden. That Is a part of the He of war. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. They say to us who are born 
German — although how can we change It that we are so 
born and our mouths cannot so speak the language that 
we hide It what we are — they say to us, "We let you be 
citizens, we give you the vote, the school for your chil- 
dren to learn, so be glad; be glad even If your sons must 
die." Oh, I cannot bear It through. If It so goes on I 
also must die too. 

Mrs. Holden. Patriotism, which In peace Is pro- 
vincialism, In war becomes stark madness. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. When we with heart-broke can- 
not shout so loud to say, "Kill the kaiser; crush the Ger- 
man people through," they tell us, "You are for the 
Kaiser. You want to see the Germans come over here 
and kill us all." 

Mrs. Holden. "Pro-German" — that is the bellow 
of the bull herd against all of us who are not with the 
stampede. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. Also, do they call you so? 

Mrs. Holden. Yes, they do. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. I thought it was only Germans 
that made them so angry against us. 

Mrs. Holden. A Pacifist is even worse than a Ger- 
man. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. Our neighbors, many of them, 
who talk with us kindly always before, they turn from us 
now away like we was of poison. 

Mrs. Holden. They do the same to me. Some of 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

my old friends will not speak to me when I meet them 
on the street. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. They say always for liberty we 
fight. All say the same words. My brudder long ago 
writes from Germany, "The German people fight for 
liberty. England would destroy the German nation. 
France and Russia attacked first against us. We fight 
only for defense of the fatherland." 

Mrs. Holden. It is the same with all nations in 
war. All are fighting for defense, as a consequence of 
the fact that the destruction of the other side is the first 
object of each side. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. And when it is all over — what 
then comes? 

Mrs. Holden. Victory knows no remorse. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. So you do not think it makes the 
world more free if America and the Allies crush the Ger- 
mans out? 

Mrs. Holden. Peace without victory is the world's 
only chance for freedom. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. But the nation says, "Win the 
war," and we are forced to obey the nation, what it tells 
us. 

Mrs. Holden. I refuse to obey the nation when it 
is wrong. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. What can you else do? 

Mrs. Holden. Not fall in line. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. They will make you. 

Mrs. Holden. Who are these invisible, menacing 
"they"? 

Mrs. Schweitzer. I don't know. 

Mrs. Holden. Neither do I, but whether they are 
the civil government or the war department or the steel 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

trust or the National Security League or even the people, 
I cannot be a party to their crime. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. Sch! Someone might hear you. 

Mrs. Holden. My ancestors gave me the right 
under the constitution to speak my mind freely. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. Now it is no such right, is it? 

Mrs. Holden. My thoughts at least can't be inter- 
fered with. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. Do you not have to think like 
they say? I dassent think unlike they say. But to feel, 
that is different. I cannot help it how I feel. It is not 
possible to feel the happiness that they talk always to me 
about to give my son to the war. But you have no son 
to be taken off. So are you spared the greatest of the 
suffering. 

Mrs. Holden. If I had a son — but what is the use 
of imagining? If I had a son he might not agree with 
me any more than my daughter does. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. We are all so helpless as babies 
before the war. It makes no matter if we agree or do 
not agree, our sons are taken off to fight. 

Mrs. Holden. Unless they refuse to fight. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. Refuse to fight? How do you 
mean refuse to fight? It is the law. They draft them. 
Nobody can so refuse. 

Mrs. Holden. I know a young man who has re- 
fused the draft. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. I do not know how you mean. 

Mrs. Holden. He declines to be a conscript slave. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. What he does? 

Mrs. Holden. He will not take any part in the war, 
combative or non-combative, although he has been 
drafted. 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Mrs. Schweitzer. Not to go when they draft him? 
They force him to go. 

Mrs. Holden. Their force will run up against a 
snag in his case. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. What then becomes of him? 

Mrs. Holden. I don't know. He may be shot by 
the wall. At best he will be court-martialed and im- 
prisoned. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. How dares he so to act against 
them? 

Mrs Holden. He must be braver than the bravest 
soldier ever was. To run counter to current opinion and 
the traditional standards of honor takes more pluck than 
to go to war under the plaudits of the crowd. There's 
no heroism like it. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. He puts himself by yet more 
danger than to go to war. That Is not of what they say 
— common sense. 

Mrs. Holden. Maybe so, but he has a moral con- 
viction that the war is wrong so he can't take part in it. 
He's a Conscientious Objector. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. I thought they called them slack- 
ers. 

Mrs. Holden. They do. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. And he does not fear to be so 
called? 

Mrs. Holden. Not when he draws the cord so 
taut on his side that their epithet is belled. He's an 
absolutist, who not only will not kill his fellowmen with 
his own hands but will not by helping behind the lines 
push others on to kill and be killed. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. I have not before heard any one 
so speak as you do. It is of great courage surely. But 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

William how could he say he would not go to war or I 
say I would not give him up? Would they not kill us 
both, being German? 

Mrs. Holden. They might. The course of the 
Conscientious Objector Is hazardous. As a venture, I don't 
advise any one to try It. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. And yet this young man you 
speak of, you do not so tell him? 

Mrs. Holden. He knows the risks better than I. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. Do you not think he does wrong? 

Mrs. Holden. If he Is wrong so was Jesus Christ. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. You speak so strange. 

Mrs. Holden. Yes, it's a new Idea to most people. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. If everybody thought and did 
like him all right, but one — 

Mrs. Calkins {who has been standing near, coming 
forward and speaking with gushing cordiality). Why, 
how do you do, Mrs. Schweitzer. I'm so glad to see you. 
{Shakes hands with her.) We've missed you at the meet- 
ings lately. {Turns to Mrs. Holden and shakes hands.) 
I'm glad to see you, too, Mrs. Holden, but you're not 
such a stranger. 

Mrs. Holden. Yes, I'm usually on hand In case I'm 
needed In my official capacity. 

Mrs. Calkins. That's what I've always said about 
you, Mrs. Holden, and it does seem too bad after all 
you've done for the Ladies' Aid Society that you should 
be asked to — oh, I didn't mean to speak of it, but you see 
I'm on the loyalty committee and can't help knowing all 
about it. {Softly and confidentially.) And I want to tell 
you just between ourselves that you'd better use the soft 
pedal a little for they're awfully worked up. 

Mrs. Holden. They shall have my resignation to- 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

day. 

Mrs. Calkins. Now, for myself I hate to see you 
put out even if you are against the war, but I can't say a 
word or they might think me disloyal, too, and that would 
be awful for there isn't a man or woman in the whole 
country more strong for the war than I am. That's why 
I haven't been able to stand up for you to the committee 
though I am your friend. You see how it is, don't you? 

Mrs, Holden. Perfectly. 

Mrs. Calkins. I'm so deeply patriotic that the war 
is getting to be my very life, but I don't believe in taking 
it the way some of the committee do. My way would 
be to get all the good out of it and not make so much 
trouble about it. 

Mrs. Holden. War is all trouble, my dear. 

Mrs. Calkins. But why shouldn't we look on the 
bright side of it like anything else? 

Mrs. Holden. Where is the bright side of it? 

Mrs. Calkins {pressing her hands together raptur- 
ously). It's so inspiring and unlifting! You feel the thrill 
of it, don't you, Mrs. Schweitzer, with your son so soon 
to be a soldier? 

Mrs. Schweitzer. It is all to me terrible and 
strange. 

Mrs. Calkins. And your William so husky and 
handsome ! You don't know how my husband envies him 
the splendid physical examination he passed. My hus- 
band has weak lungs and can't pass at all. It's too bad, 
for he's just crazy to enlist. I tell him that it wouldn't 
really be right for him with a family to risk his life so 
long as there are unmarried men left, but I wouldn't be 
a slacker and hold him back. It's only his weak lungs 
that keeps him out. 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Mrs. Schweitzer. It Is to me more to envy you, 
even that your husband has weak lungs. To mothers it 
is not so much pleasure what you think. 

Mrs. Calkins. Ah, but the honor of it. Every- 
body adores the boys in khaki. They're the whole thing 
now. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. When your husband is so safe 
not to pass you cannot know the pain. 

Mrs. Calkins. Yes, I can see your point of view 
because I'm a mother, too, you know. But when the 
country needs our sons we should give them freely and 
cheerfully. If my son were called to the colors I'd be 
the proudest wom.an on earth. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. How old is your son? 

Mrs. Calkins. He's just had his third birthday, 
and we got him a little soldier cap for his birthday and 
a little gun, and he says, "To hell wif Kaiser Bill. I'll 
soot him full o' holes." It's the cutest thing the way he 
says it and points his little gun — just like a real soldier 
boy. His daddy taught him. 

Mrs. Holden. Oh, Katherlne, shame on you using 
your innocent baby that way. I won't listen to your chat- 
ter. ( Turns away.) 

Mrs. Calkins {testily). Now, Mrs. Holden, just 
because you used to be miy Sunday school teacher when I 
v/as a little girl maybe you think you can say anything 
you please to me, but you can't. I won't take it from you 
any more. You're the one now that needs to be taught 
what's right. We're dedicating our baby to his country 
in his Infancy and if you don't approve of It we don't 
care. 

Mrs. Holden. If It had been his twenty-first birth- 
day and the soldier cap and the gun were of a different 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

size and calibre your tone might be different. 

Mrs. Calkins. It's only because you're so disloyal 
that it's almost a disgrace for anybody to be seen speak- 
ing to you that you can't understand the feelings of a 
patriotic mother. Of course I am a little out of it with 
my son too sm.all to give to active service, but that doesn't 
make me any less willing. I'm heart and soul with all 
the soldiers. My heart just pounds against my side when 
I watch them march away under the flag. What would 
I do if my own son, the offspring of my own life, were 
in the line? 

Mrs. Schweitzer. You'd cry like any other mother. 

Mrs. Calkins. It's weak and cowardly to cry. Only 
the disloyal shed tears. The true, brave mothers smile 
and cheer when their sons go by. I've seen them and 
longed to be one of them, I tell you, you older mothers 
have the advantage of us young ones. You're furnishing 
the nation's man-power. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. I hope when your son grows up 
you do not have such advantage what you speak of. 

Mrs. Calkins. What you need, Mrs. Schweitzer, is 
a little more Americanism in your heart. You should get 
out more among people who would stimulate your loyalty 
and patriotism. Then you'd become unselfish and be 
glad, although you are German, to give your son even to 
die if necessary for the glorious country that succors and 
befriends you. 

Mrs. Schweitzer (in a distressed voice). So all the 
time I hear glad, glad. I will have my mind all gone if 
they do not stop this glad, glad. It is a lie. 

Mrs. Calkins {apologetically) . Oh, I didn't mean 
to hurt your feelings. I'm sorry, but, well — I know it's 
true or everybody wouldn't be saying so. 

10 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Mrs. Holden. You've been reading the magazines, 
I see. 

Mrs. Calkins. I read all I have time to. We have 
to read to keep up with things when there's so much 
going on. 

Mrs. Holden. And you've been going to the pic- 
ture shows. That's where you've seen the glad mothers 
waving to their departing sons. 

Mrs. Calkins {a little irritated). Yes, and if you'd 
go to them and if you'd come to church and if you'd 
read some of the splendid articles in the Woman's Home 
Bulletin you'd learn a lot of things that you're very much 
in need of knowing, Mrs. Holden. 

Mrs. Holden. You know, Katherine, I never could 
keep up with the fashions. 

Mrs. Calkins {ignoring Mrs. Holden's remark and 
speaking benignly to Mrs. Schweitzer). Wait till 
William actually gets started, Mrs. Schweitzer. When 
you're wearing your service pin you'll feel a lot better. I 
just know you will. The service pins are sort of a fra- 
ternity badge among us. They keep us buoyed up and 
the new ones are so pretty. See. {She shows her a 
small service pin on her breast.) I'm wearing mine for 
my brother-in-law. He's in France in the Y. M. C. A. 
service. He wears a uniform. They say it's perfectly 
wonderful what the Y. M. C. A. is doing to safeguard 
the morals of our boys over there. Mrs. Briggs told us 
all about it at our last meeting. You should have heard 
her. It would have been such a comfort to you. You 
heard her, didn't you, Mrs. Holden? 

Mrs. Holden. Yes, I heard her. I'd like to say 
some sharp things, but I won't. 

Mrs. Calkins. About Mrs. Briggs? Why, you 

11 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

ought to be ashamed. Isn't she giving up everything and 
even paying her own expenses across just to help the 
boys? — a woman in the best society, too. We can't esti- 
mate the good she'll do. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. What will she do? 

Mrs. Calkins. Her work will be to make it home- 
like for them in the huts and keep them cheerful. That's 
what they call strengthening the morale — I think that's 
the w^ord. Morale — it's such a w^onderful thing. It's 
what keeps them going on and on to victory. Sometimes 
a little pleasure just before a battle w^ill lift them out of 
discouragement and make them fight better. There's so 
much Mrs. Briggs can do in that line, she's so talented. 
She can sing and play and she knows all the new dances. 

Mrs. Holden {putting her arm through Mrs. Cal- 
KIN^S arm). Perhaps another year will make you take 
the war more seriously, Katherine. 

Mrs. Calkins. Take it more seriously; what do 
you mean? It's the most serious thing in my life. Why, 
I Vv^ould give my all to make the world safe for dem- 
ocracy. 

Mrs. Holden. The new phrases, like the new ser- 
vice pins, are very pretty, aren't they? 

Mrs. Calkins, {turning her hack to Mrs. Holden 
and speaking with frivolous enthusiasm) . Mrs. Schweit- 
zer, as soon as you get William's picture in uniform you 
must give me one for the Ladies' Aid war gallery. Did 
you hear about our plan? 

Mrs. Schweitzer. William spoke already yesterday 
that he would get his picture taken. So they all have 
pictures, and then sometime we have only the picture in 
our hands. They even do not know what it means. 

Mrs. Calkins. We're going to frame all the pic- 

12 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

tures of our honor roll boys and hang them around the 
service flag. We've already got Ernest McConnell and 
the Smith boys and a few others. {Points to the service 
flag.) See? Although it looks a little bare now, there'll 
be a lot of stars in it by the time we have the bazaar. 
We must make a good showing for our church then. 

Mrs. Holden. Are the churches in a race for stars 
in the service flag? 

Mrs. Calkins. No, not exactly that, but we can't 
afford to be behind the other churches in patriotism, {sig- 
nijicantly) especially since certain people have caused us 
to be suspected of disloyalty. 

Mrs. Holden {meditatively) . I wonder if there 
will be a race, too, for gold stars in the service flag. 

Mrs. Calkins {sharply). Of course we don't want 
to have anybody killed, and that's just why we must en- 
courage them to be heroes and win the war and not get 
killed. That's woman's part. 

Mrs. Holden. And woman seems to be doing her 
part most assiduously. 

Mrs. Calkins. Well, I love to feel that I — 

The President of the Ladies^ Aid Society, who has 
taken her place at the table, raps with her gavel. Mrs. 
Holden and Mrs. Schweitzer take seats in the last 
row of chairs. Mrs. Calkins joins a group farther for- 
ward. 

President. The meeting will please come to order. 
{Pauses a few moments while the last stragglers settle 
down.) The Secretary will read the minutes of the last 
meeting. 

Secretary {rising and reading from the minute 
book). The regular meeting of the Ladies' Aid Society 
was called to order by the President in the Sunday school 

13 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

room of the church at three o'clock on Friday afternoon 
as usual. The minutes of the previous meeting were read 
and approved. After the reading of the minutes the 
President called for reports of committees. Mrs. Davis, 
chairman of the committee on arrangements for the fall 
bazaar, reported that their work was progressing nicely. 
A detailed statement of plans was submitted and freely 
discussed, after which it was moved, seconded and car- 
ried that the report of the committee be accepted. Pro- 
ceeding to new business, it was moved and seconded that 
a commiittee of five be appointed to investigate certain 
rumors of disloyalty among our members and to co-oper- 
ate with the local Council of Defense in enforcing loyalty 
in the community. Motion carried. There being no 
further business, by unanimous vote the meeting was 
turned over to our former president, Mrs. Martin Briggs, 
who is soon leaving her home for a greater field of lov- 
ing service in the overseas work of the Y. M. C. A. 
After a most inspiring address from Mrs. Briggs the 
meeting adjourned. 

President. If there are no additions or corrections 
the minutes stand approved as read. {Pauses a moment.) 
What is the first business to come before the meeting? 
Madam Secretary, are there any communications to be 
read? 

Secretary. Nothing today. 

President. Then we will proceed with the reports 
of committees. Mrs. Davis, will you report the prog- 
ress of the committee on arrangements for the bazaar. 

Mrs. Davis {rising). Madam President, I think 
there is nothing nev/ since our last meeting. We are still 
busy soliciting salable articles and are quite encouraged 
with the response we are receiving. I have no formal 



14 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

report to make, but I would like to suggest that since the 
proceeds of this year's bazaar are to be used for the most 
part In war work that we accentuate the note of patriot- 
ism all through. In making articles for sale use the na- 
tional colors wherever possible. Also, remember the spe- 
cial little comforts that mothers and sweethearts would 
like to send to their dear ones overseas or In camp, and 
the soldier emblems that can be so daintily worked In on 
banners, bags, soft pillows and other things. Patriotism 
lends Itself so well to artistic decoration, and the war 
theme should be carried out In everything. In this way 
our bazaar will not only bring In greater returns finan- 
cially, but we will also be rendering aid to our soldiers 
and sailors at the front In a sort of Intimate and personal 
way as only womien can. 

President. This Is an excellent and timely sugges- 
tion which I am sure you will all bear In mind. Since 
It Is not presented as a motion or a formal report I think 
no action need be taken. Has the committee on Red 
Cross organization anything to report? 

Mrs. Baker (rising). Madam President, I am 
happy to report that we have completed the organization 
of our Red Cross auxiliary and are now working under 
the direction of the central office. There Is to be an all 
day knitting circle In this room on Tuesday. All the 
ladies of the church are urged to be present, as we will 
have with us a knitting Instructor from headquarters to 
help those not yet proficient In the art of knitting. Knit- 
ting is new to many of us. I know it Is to me. America 
has never before been a nation of knitting women, but 
we all know that American women are capable of any- 
thing required of them in an emergency. I am sure that 
none of us wants to be slipshod or lax In fulfilling this 

15 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

duty of women in war time. The war, at least our coun- 
try's part In the war, Is only In Its beginning. We do not 
know how long we shall be asked to knit for our soldiers, 
but whether It Is a long period or a short period we want 
to do our work well. I have nothing more to report ex- 
cept that the ladles are taking hold of the Red Cross 
work with earnestness and enthusiasm, and I think we 
will not fall to turn out our quota of bandages, socks, 
sweaters and everything else that we are Instructed to 
make from week to week. 

President. What Is the pleasure of the meeting In 
regard to this report? 

A Woman. I move that. It be accepted. 

Another Woman. I second the motion. 

President. It has been moved and seconded that 
the report of the Red Cross organization committee be 
accepted. Are there any remarks? {Waits a minute.) 
All In favor of the motion signify by saying "Aye." 

Voices. Aye ! Aye ! 

President. Contrary, "No." {Silence.) The mo- 
tion Is carried. The next to be heard from Is, I believe, 
the loyalty committee. Mrs. WIckershelm, I know that 
you have matters of vital Importance to bring before us 
this afternoon, so I will ask you to step forward and 
come upon the platform that all may hear and under- 
stand. 

Mrs. Wickersham {comes to platform and stands at 
left of President) . Madam President, fellow-members 
of the Ladles' Aid Society, yes It Is true that I have vital 
matters — most vital matters — to lay before you this after- 
noon. It Is a hard task that has been put upon my 
shoulders, a task that has caused me nights without sleep 
and days of mental anguish, a task which we of the 

16 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

loyalty committee have begun, but which you, all of you, 
will have to carry forward with unceasing vigilance. 
When I accepted the office of chairman of this committee 
I did not realize the seriousness of the situation that was 
to confront me. I rather scoffed at the idea of even a 
shadow of disloyalty existing among women acknowledg- 
ing Christ as their savior and banded together to serve 
God and country. That a body of women within the 
told of a great Christian church could in any part be 
infected with the proud flesh and stenching decay of trea- 
son against the government which God in his gracious 
mercy has vouchsafed to us and established over us by 
his divine will seemed to me impossible. And yet such 
is the case, ladies, such is the condition right here in this 
church, in this Ladies' Aid Society, (with increasing 
vehe^nence) yea, in this very room where we are gathered 
together today. We are nursing in our bosom the poison- 
ous viper of sedition which if we do not trample under 
foot before another sun goes down may spread its filthy 
slim^e over us and render us powerless in our country's 
hour of need. {Pause's for emphasis and breath.) But 
I am speaking too much in figures. I must present naked 
facts to you. One or more of our committee has visited 
the home of every member of this society and as a result 
of our investigation we have compiled a list of members 
classifying them as loyal, doubtful and proved disloyal. 
I am glad to say that our loyal column is a long one, our 
doubtful column fairly short and our proved disloyal col- 
umn contains but one name at present. It would seem 
from such a report that no grave danger threatened us 
and I would not feel apprehensive for our safety if It 
were not for the fact that this name Is one which in the 
past has carried influence in the church, a name which 

17 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

even now Is conspicuous on our official letterheads, 
(speaking louder) the name of an officer in our Ladies' 
Aid Society. For this reason shame and ignominy are 
cast upon us all. When we called upon this woman at 
her home we did not find the hallowed flag of our coun- 
try anywhere in evidence. The remarks she made when 
questioned on the subject of the war reeked with sedition 
amounting to anarchy. She had the boldness to say that 
she was a Pacifist, an internationalist to whom one coun- 
try was the same as another; that she swore allegiance 
to no flag; that Germans, Russians, Belgians, English, 
French, Austrians, Irish, Hindus, Chinese, Mexicans, Jap- 
anese — oh, I don't remember all she named — were just 
as much her countrymen as Americans were. She didn't 
stop with our Allies whom she might have the right to 
include to a certain extent. She even began with the Ger- 
mans and said defiantly that they were no more to 
blame for the war than other nations were. She feels 
no sense of duty to her country in distress. Ladles, can 
we afford to jeopardize our good name by allowing this 
insidious enemy to remain among us? Can we who have 
so devotedly taken up the service of our beloved country 
risk the danger of sheltering a Pacifist in our midst? 
Ladies, I tell you that until we purge our organization 
of every suspicion of disloyalty no one of us Is safe. Our 
boys are even now on their way to the trenches. Shall 
we further endanger their safety by slackness in vigilance 
at home? Remember, ladles, the lives of our own sons 
are at stake, our homes and our firesides are at stake, the 
honor of our women is at stake, our national existence is 
at stake. If the Germans win In France next they will 
conquer England and then they will come over here. We 
know how the Beast of Berlin has planned the conquest 

18 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

of the world. It has all been exposed by our wide-awake 
press. We are asleep if we do not know the danger. It 
is only a short distance from England to our shores. 
Shall we submit to the violation of our sacred soil, to 
the destruction of our property, to the mutilation of our 
children, to the raping of our women? No. {Pounds 
on the table excitedly.) It is our Christian duty to ex- 
terminate the diabolical race of Huns from the face of 
God's earth. Christianity and civilization must triumph 
over heathenism and barbarism. There is only one thing 
in the world that matters today, and that is for the Allies 
to win the war. My husband has just been to Can- 
ada. There he met a man who knew a woman who sent 
for two Belgian children to adopt and when they were 
brought to her she found that they were without hands. 
{Melodramatically.) Oh, mothers, can you bear to 
think of it — their little, tender hands had been cut off 
by the German soldiers! I cannot look upon a baby's 
hands without calling for the vengeance of God upon 
these fiends of hell in the guise of men. Also, a friend 
of mine has a friend in England whose son was taken 
prisoner by the Germans. In some way he succeeded in 
sending his watch to his mother. She took it to the 
jeweler and when he opened it he found a tiny folded 
paper hidden in the works, which he extricated and gave 
to the mother. She unfolded it very carefully and found 
this message written in blood, "Dear Mother, I can never 
speak to you again even if I am spared to come home. 
They have cut out my tongue." Oh, I cannot repeat all 
that I know of the atrocities committed by these creatures 
lower than the beasts of the jungle. There are things 
too shameful to be spoken of in public. And yet skulking 
Pacifists walk among us harping on the commandment, 

19 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

"Thou shalt not kill." We all know that this command- 
ment applies only to men, and that the Germans have 
ceased to be men. The scriptures do not forbid us to 
kill the poisonous rattlesnake or to destroy the wolf that 
is devouring the lamb. Oh that I were a man and young 
that I might take a gun in my own hands! Waste no 
pity on these bloodthirsty beasts, the Huns. Give them 
some of their own medicine. God is on our side. God 
has given us our red blooded fighting men and God com- 
mands us who cannot bear arms ourselves to get behind 
them. I cannot say more. My emotions are beginning 
to overpower me. I have made my report that there are 
doubtful and disloyal members in our Ladies' Aid Society, 
that one of our very officers is seeking to betray us. I 
have warned you of the dangers involved. It is for you 
to act — firmxly, fearlessly and at once. (Steps from the 
platform and sits down panting in a chair in the front 
row.) 

President. You have heard this most startling re- 
port. What will you do about it? 

Mrs. Smith {rising quickly). I should think every- 
body in this church would know what to do with Pacifists. 
What does Billy Sunday say? "Hang them to the lamp 
posts." That's what I say, too. 

Mrs. Baker {rising and speaking with dignity). 
Madam President, in order to bring the question before 
the meeting for quiet and orderly discussion, I move that 
the report of the loyalty committee be accepted and that 
any member of our society who is proved disloyal be 
dropped from the membership roll. 

A Woman. I second the motion. 

President. You have heard the motion. Are there 
any remarks? 

20 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Mrs. McConnell (rising). Madam President, I 
think that the chairman of the loyalty committee Is un- 
necessarily alarmed about this matter of disloyalty. Is It 
not a part of our duty as material and moral supporters 
of the war to be forebearing In our dealings with those 
who do not see things as we do? Will the dropping of 
members from an organization of this kind engender 
loyalty In the hearts of those so dealt with or aid the 
cause of democracy In any way? Free speech Is the 
foundation stone of our government; tolerance has al- 
ways been the pride of our republic. To curtail In any 
way the expression of honest opinion Is un-American. I 
was opposed to the entrance of our country Into the war, 
but I have been convinced by President Wilson's wonder- 
ful words that it has become necessary for us to take part 
In International affairs even to the extent of fighting In 
the most fearful war that has ever been waged in the 
history of mankind. (Speaking very earnestly.) The 
Ideal of a united world makes It impossible for us to 
stay out of the actual conflict any longer. We are taking 
up arms In defense of justice and truth. We are fighting 
not for any selfish national ends but for the whole of 
humanity. We have undertaken a war to end war for 
all time. Let us prove to the world that our motives 
are pure; that we hate no people; that we accept the 
method of the sword only because under the circum- 
stances It Is not given us to choose our method. The 
world is In arms and we have no alternative but to fight 
on the side which v/e believe to be right. Let us not 
talk about crushing the Germans. It cannot be our desire 
to crush any people. We are In a life and death struggle 
for the sole purpose of establishing peace, the peace of 
justice, hope and love, the peace that passeth understand- 

21 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

ing, which may not come in our time, but which if we 
fight the battle rightly will be the heritage of our chil- 
dren. Let us not fire our hearts and the hearts of our 
neighbors with stories of atrocities. Atrocities are the 
hideous part of all wars, committed on all sides by the 
ignorant and brutal. These stories which have been told 
here today are the same stories which are always current 
during war. Each nation tells them about the enemy 
nation In every war. In every language from generation 
to generation. They are established traditions, perhaps 
established practices of all wars, by no means exclusively 
German. The war is frightful, horrible, incomprehensi- 
ble. President Wilson's ideals alone redeem it. Let us 
not swerve one moment from these ideals. We will fail 
even In victory if we do not hold always before us the 
lighted torch of the brotherhood of man. 

Mrs. Wickersheim {jumps to her feet and speaks 
angrily). Ladles, I have told you that we have on our 
list members marked doubtful. Are you aware that it 
has just been Intimated that American soldiers are capa- 
ble of committing atrocities? Will you accept this insult 
to our brave boys who are making the supreme 
sacrifice that we may be spared? 

Mrs. Smith {hissing). Any one who says such 
things ought to be strung up. That's what I say. 

Mrs. Baker. I call for the question. 

President. All those in favor of the motion please 
signify by saying "Aye." 

Several Voices. Aye. {Many do not vote.) 

President. Contrary, "No." 

Mrs. McConnell {alone). No. 

President. The motion is carried. What is the next 
business to come before the meeting. 

22 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Mrs. Holden {comes forward and hands an envelope 
to the President). Madam President, I hereby hand 
in my resignation as vice-president of the Ladies' Aid 
Society. If it is in order, I move that it be accepted. 
{Returns to her seat.) 

Mrs. Wickersheim {again jumping up). Ladies, 
this is a trick. Can't you see through it? This 
woman is trying to resign her official position and with- 
draw from the society without being noticed. But she 
knows that she's the very one that I've been telling you 
about and that she can't resign because she's already been 
dismissed. In trying to spare her feelings by refraining 
from mentioning her name I have only given her a 
chance to hoodwink you. Will you permit it? This 
woman should be driven out with open rebuke. I should 
not have been so easy and simple as to try to shield her. 
She must be taught a lesson at our hands and the public 
m.ust know that we have purged our organization. I tell 
you, ladies, we must act without delay for she and her 
questionable friends are trying to foist upon an unsuspect- 
ing — {Her remarks are cut short by the blowing of a 
loud whistle without. She sits down.) 

President {speaking in a loud voice to be heard 
above the noise). The Times whistle! You know it was 
to blow at four o'clock this afternoon as a call to prayer 
for victory. Let us bow our heads in silent prayer. 
{Whistle blows for a few minutes while all are silent.) 
And now before our minds are turned again to secular 
matters let us rise and salute the flag of our precious 
country. 

{Several women are on their feet at once, particularly 
Mrs. Wickersheim and Mrs. Smith. Others follow, 
some hesitate, but finally all have risen except Mrs. 

23 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

HoLDEN and Mrs. Schweitzer in the rear seats.) 

Women {standing at *' attention,'' right hand at 
brow). "I pledge allegiance to the flag and to the re- 
public for which It stands, one nation indivisible with 
liberty and justice for all." {All sit down except 
Mrs. Wickersheim^ who stands holding out both arms 
toward the flag.) 

Mrs. Wickersheim {in sentimental tones). My 
flag, your flag, our flag! 

{Confusion is beginning to arise. Women whisper 
and turn to look at Mrs. Holden and Mrs. Schweit- 
zer. ) 

President {greatly disturbed) . Let us sing a hymn. 
Music will perhaps calm us. Mrs. McConnell, will you 
go to the piano and start us on a hymn? 

Mrs. McConnell {goes to the piano). Shall we 
sing number 458? I think that is an appropriate hymn 
at this tim.e. {Begins to play ''Jesus, I My Cross Have 
Taken.'' Women rise with hymn books in hand.) 

Women {singing). ^']esus, I my cross have taken, 
All to leave and follow thee. 
Destitute, despised, forsaken. 
Thou from hence my all shalt be." 

Mrs. Wickersheim {shouting passionately as Mrs. 
McConnell plays the interlude). I can't let this go on 
any longer. This Is too much. (Mrs. McConnell 
stops playing and turns around in astonishment.) This 
is the last straw. My heart is on fire. In this room, in 
this Sunday school room where our boys have met to say 
their last prayers before going forth to lay their young 
lives upon the altar of freedom; in this room where our 
children are taught the sacred hymns of patriotism, a 
traitor, a German spy comes forward and brazenly plays 

24 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

on our piano, "Deutschland uber Alles." 

Mrs. Smith (shouting). The room is full of spies 
and traitors. I say kick them out. 

(Excitement is evident in the audience. Women are 
whispering audibly and some nod approval at Mrs. 
Smith's words.) 

President (very much agitated). I don't understand 
you, Mrs Wickersheim. 

Mrs. Wickersheim. Don't you know the tune of 
"Deutschland uber Alles" when you hear it played right 
in front of you? I do. We used to have it on the 
phonograph before the war. 

President. Mrs. McConnell, did you know that 
was "Deutschland uber Alles" when you chose it? 

Mrs. McConnell (calmly). Mrs. Wickersheim is 
mistaken. This is not the melody of "Deutschland uber 
Alles.' "'"'t is a Haydn melody. This is from Mozart. 

Mrs. Wickersheim. Well, isn't it German, just 
the same? 

Mrs. Smith. Haven't we got any American tunes in 
the book, I'd like to know? 

Mrs. Wickersheim. It's time for Christian Amer- 
icans to purge their hymn books. 

Mrs. Smith. Yes, if we can't find any American 
tunes in the book we'd better quit singing, I should say. 

Mrs. Wickersheim. There is no more subtle means 
of German propaganda than German music. Our school 
board has ordered that all songs with German tunes be 
torn from the song books of the public schools. Loyal 
citizens everywhere are taking a stand against German 
music. I read in the Times only yesterday how two 
business men left the dining room of one of our largest 
hotels because the orchestra played a German piece. 

25 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

That's the only way to act. How can anybody with any 
feeling at all endure anything that comes from those 
bloody Huns? In our house we have smashed every 
German phonograph record we had. 

Mrs. Smith. I say put her out — that German spy 
there! (Points her finger menacingly at Mrs. McCon- 

NELL.) 

Mrs. McConnell {amazed). Why am I so at- 
tacked? I have a son in the service, a volunteer, already 
in France. You all know that I am supporting the war 
with all my heart. Mrs. Calkins, wasn't my son's star 
the first one in the service flag? 

Mrs. Calkins (Wj/;?^). Yes, Ernest McConnell was 
the first hero whose picture we framed for our war gal- 
lery. I don't see hov/ his mother could be a German spy. 

Mrs. ?v1cConnell {distressed). I have given my 
son — that Is so far as another life is mine to give — to 
fight for the Ideals which he and I believe in. What 
more could I do to prove my loyalty? 

Mrs. Wickersheim {spitefully). What about your 
other son, the Socialist? 

Mrs. Smith. Yes, I should say. What about him, 
the skunk? 

Mrs. Wickersheim. You may have a son In the 
war, but aren't you the mother of a slacker, too, a spine- 
less jellyfish who has publicly refused to defend his coun- 
try's flag, a coward who's afraid to fight, who's willing 
to endanger the whole nation to save his own skin? What 
have you to say for yourself about him? 

Mrs. McConnell {deeply stung). I am not his 
keeper. He is a grown man. I can't dictate to him as 
if he were a child. If he Is a Conscientious Objector, it 
is his conscience not mine that guides him. But you have 

26 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISxM 

no right to call him a coward. He opposes the war on 
moral grounds, as his brother and I support it on moral 
grounds, and in taking his stand he is risking his life as 
much as his brother is in going to war. Don't you think 
that I am torn as no other mother here is torn with 
anguish over the demands of the war and the conflict of 
ideas within my own family? 

Mrs. Baker {rising and speaking quietly). Madam 
President, I have remained silent for fear of adding more 
fuel to the flames, but now I feel that I must rise to a 
point of justice as well as order. How can any one doubt 
the loyalty of Mrs. McConnell after the statements she 
has made and the sentiments she has expressed? Have 
the women forgotten that we are in the house of God? 
Personal abuse must cease. We are meeting today to 
discuss important matters of business. A motion is be- 
fore the house — that is a motion has been made by Mrs. 
Holden that her resignation as vice-president be accepted. 
I second that motion and call for a discussion of the 
question. 

Mrs. Davis {rising). Madam President, I thought 
it was understood that her resignation was superfluous as 
the previous motion dropped her from membership. I 
call for a ruling by the chair. 

President {noticeably confused). I really don't know. 
Mrs. Baker, you are our parliamentarian, can't you put 
us right on this point? 

Mrs. Baker {rising). Madam President, since Mrs. 
Holden's name was not mentioned in the report of the 
chairman of the loyalty committee, it was not necessarily 
understood at the time the motion referred to was carried 
nor at the time Mrs. Holden handed in her resignation 
that the motion applied to her. In fact at no time has 

27 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

her name been formally presented as one to be dropped 
from the membership roll. Therefore it seems to me 
quite in order to vote on her resignation as vice-president. 
Some definite action in regard to her should go on record 
in the minutes of this meeting, since she has proved by 
her refusal to salute the flag that she is not a loyal citizen 
of the country that gave her birth, as her companion is 
not a loyal citizen of the country that has adopted her. 
But this must be carried through quietly and in order 
without any more excitement and sensationalism. We 
are Christian women, American mothers, and as such we 
are surely capable of governing our own minds and curb- 
ing our speech even though things have happened in this 
meeting which are a direct insult to all that we hold most 
sacred. 

Mrs. Wickersheim {turning to Mrs. Baker). Do 
you mean to say that there are people in this room who 
did not salute the flag? 

Mrs. Smith. Yes, didn't you see them? I saw them. 
There they are. {Points to Mrs. Holden and Mrs. 
Schweitzer.) I saw them. 

Mrs. Wickersheim. Do you suppose that as chair- 
man of the loyalty committee I would have overlooked 
such an act of treason if I had seen it? Why didn't the 
President order them from the room? 

President. I didn't know what action to — 

Voices. Pro-Germans ! Pacifists ! 

Mrs. Smith. Kick them out. {Shouting abandon- 
edly) I say kick them out! 

A Woman. I say so, too! 

{Women are rising in different parts of the room, mut- 
tering and looking threateningly at Mrs. Holden and 
Mrs. Schweitzer.) 

28 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

President {rapping nervously with her gavel). Arc 
you ready for the question? 

Mrs. Baker. Question. {Most of the women pay 
no attention.) Friends, sisters, be seated. The meeting 
has not adjourned. 

{Women begin moving about the room, talking indis' 
criminately.) 

Voices {in a jangled chorus). Pro-Germans! Trait- 
ors ! They're anarchists ! That's what they are ! We've 
had enough of Pacifists ! We're in war now ! Our coun- 
try's flag! They insulted it! Insulted the flag! Yes, 
it's an outrage ! German spies ! Report them to the 
police ! Socialists ! Traitors ! It's sedition ! Treason, 
treason ! 

{Women surround Mrs. Holden and Mrs. Schweit- 
zer, who rise quietly and start to leave the room.) 

Mrs. Wickersheim {goes to Mrs. McConnell 
and takes her roughly by the arm). You, too. Come 
along. This is no place for you, either. {Lets go her 
arm as Mrs. McConnell voluntarily follows Mrs. 
Holden and Mrs. Schweitzer.) 

Mrs. Schweitzer {near the door attempting to 
speak). I would like just one word to speak. Madam 
President, may not I have one word to speak? 

President {rapping loudly with the gavel). Silence, 
order ! Mrs. Schweitzer has the floor. Let Mrs. Schweit- 
zer speak. Let Mrs. Schweit — 

Voices {at random). Traitors! German spies! 
Right here! At this meeting! Drive them out! Drive 
them out! Traitors! 

Mrs. Baker. Order, order! Women, attention! 
The President is speaking. 

President {in a frightened voice). Order! I call for 

29 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

order. Let Mrs. Schweitzer speak. {Raps repeatedly 
with the gavel which only adds to the tumult and con- 
fusion.) Take your seats, ladles! {Almost crying.) Oh, 
please take your seats, ladies! She has a right to speak. 

Mrs. Smith {throwing a hymn hook at Mrs. 
Schweitzer). Get out of here, you stinking German! 

(Mrs. Holden, Mrs. Schweitzer and Mrs. Mc- 
CONNELL leave the roojji.) 

Mrs. Baker. I move we adjourn. 

President. Is there a second to this motion? {No 
one answers. All are moving about the room and talk- 
ing. ) 

Voices {at random). They're gone! German spies! 
They're everywhere. We can't be too careful. 

Mrs. Wickersheim {throwing her arms above her 
head and screaming hysterically) . We have purged our 
meeting, but this is not the end. Traitors, three traitors ! 
God will punish them. Speedily he will punish them. 
This is not the end. Oh! Oh! — {wails and falls 
panting into a chair). 

Mrs. Smith {in a frenzy, running about the room 
and shouting). He will. He will. Traitors! Punish 
them. Traitors ! He will. God will, yes. He will. I 

say traitors punish God will, yes, 

trai ! 

Mrs. Wickersheim. They have sought to desecrate 
this house of worship but we have — oh, we have cast 
them {breathing convulsively) like vipers — like vipers 
from our midst! 

Mrs. Smith {still running about). Vipers, yes, cast 

them traitors, pro-Ger cast them, yes — trai — 

ai — tors! I say traitors {shrieks wildly) Oh! 

punish God will punish ! 

30 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Mrs. Davis (touches her arm gently). Sister, sister, 
compose yourself. 

Mrs. Smith. God will vipers trait 

punish oh! oh ! (Jerks her arm away from 

Mrs. Davis.) 

Mrs. Davis. Yes, sister, yes; It's in God's hands. 

Mrs. Smith. Punish them God vipers 

traitors pun — ! (Mrs. Davis puts her arm 

around Mrs. Smith's body trying vainly to calm her. 
Mrs. Smith raises her hand as if to strike Mrs. Davis.) 

Let me go! (Mrs. T> avis steps hack.) Punish 

God ! (Mrs. Smith rushes from the room.) 



ACT II. 

Fall of 1917. 

Living Room of Mrs. Holden's ho7ne. At the rear 
is a large window and a door leading to the street. At 
the right is a door leading to another room and at the left 
a fire place. The furnishings of the room are simple hut 
show refinement. There is a table in the center of the 
room and near the right door a small writing desk. Near 
the fire place two or three easy chairs are placed. Mrs. 
HoLDEN sits by the fire mending. 

Mrs. Holden (sings softly). 
"Jesus, I my cross have taken. 
All to leave and follow Thee." 

(After a pause speaking to herself.) Now I'm begin- 
ning to understand It. It isn't an emotional conversion 
after all. To be a Christian Is just to be calm and ra- 
tional; to follow quietly after the Christ ideal in spite of 
the shouting crowd rushing in the other direction. (Con- 
tinues singing.) 

31 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

'^Destitute, despised, forsaken, 
Thou from hence my all shalt be." 

Helen {entering from the right). So youVe still 
singing your pro-German hymn. 

Mrs. Holden. My avowal of loyalty. 

Helen {goes to the table where she lays down a bun- 
die of books and papers). And now my all-trusting 
mother, can you bear a little more weight to your cross? 

Mrs. Holden. I think so. I haven't lost my faith. 

Helen. But I've lost my job. 

Mrs. Holden. Helen! Do you really mean it? Is 
that why you're home so early? 

Helen. It is. 

Mrs. Holden. But I thought the school board de- 
cided that you couldn't be held responsible for the beliefs 
and acts of your mother. 

Helen. They did, but they only passed me tenta- 
tively. 

Mrs. Holden. And have I made you trouble after 
all, dear? I haven't meant to put anything in your way, 
for I know you don't believe as I do. 

Helen {takes of her hat and coat and lays them on a 
clc.ir near the writing desk). No, I made my own 
trouble this time. 

Mrs. Holden. You have been so unwilling to talk 
to me about school matters that I haven't known what 
was going on. Do explain it to me. Have you been 
dismissed by the school board? 

Helen. I most certainly have. 

Mrs. Holden. Well, I don't care if you have since 
the schools have become so war-mad. You've stayed 
with them too long already. 

Helen. Yes, but when one has a faith-consumed 

32 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

mother, It's necessary for that mother to have a somewhat 
practical daughter. 

Mrs. Holden. Oh, I have misjudged you, Helen. 
Then it was only pretense that you believed in the war? 

Helen. I believed in sticking to my job regardless 
of everything else. (Sits down as if tired.) I've tried 
to follow that one duty without looking to the right or to 
the left, war or no war, but I've failed. One foolish, 
soft impulse knocked over my cold, hard judgment. 

Mrs. Holden (smiling). You've done right, my 
girl. I'm proud of you. 

Helen. But I didn't mean to. It was an accident. 
You don't need to think that I've come over to your 
reckless way of looking at things; not at all. 

Mrs. Holden. How did it happen? Tell me. 

Helen. It happened so suddenly and I'm still so 
dazed that I'm not yet clear in my own mind as to how 
it did happen. But it happened, and the next question is, 
what are we going to do? How are we going to live? 

Mrs. Holden. Don't worry about that. We can 
find some way to live. I can do something. I've let you 
bear the burden too long. 

Helen. You know I never wanted you to work away 
from home. You do enough right here. 

Mrs. Holden. I could be a housekeeper somewhere. 
I'm a good cook. 

Helen. Oh, you ridiculous baby. Who do you think 
would hire a notorious Pacifist like you to cook for them ? 
Why, any loyal, patriotic family would know that you 
would poison their food. 

Mrs. Holden. We can take In sewing. We both 
know how to sew. We have our home anyway. 

Helen. Yes, it's a good thing we own our own home. 

33 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

We may be needing it to go ball for one or the other of 
us before this jazz patriotism has played itself out. 

Mrs. Holden. You haven't told me yet what hap- 
pened at school. How could they dismiss you so sud- 
denly? Did you have a hearing before the board? 

Helen. The hearing two months ago was sufficient 
for them. They put me on probation then for being my 
mother's daughter and I've been under surveillance and 
over a powder keg ever since. Today the powder keg 
exploded and blew me through the roof. But you didn't 
have anything to do with it. I lit the match with my own 
hand, and came to grief on my own account. 

Mrs. Holden. Oh I'm so glad; and how happy 
Joseph will be. 

Helen. Now you make me angry. There's no such 
thing as happiness any more. There's only misery and 
cruelty and slavery. 

Mrs. Holden. Don't be bitter, dear. I didn't mean 
to taunt you. But tell me, did you really take a stand 
against the war? 

Helen. I don't know what I did. I guess I just lost 
my nerve. I got out of breath and couldn't keep up with 
my end of the murder game. 

Mrs. Holden. Your real self broke through after 
all. I always had faith in you, Helen. 

Helen. I tell you it was only an impulse. You and 
Joseph may sacrifice yourselves and everybody else for 
principles, ideals, visions, but I'm not made that way. 
Ideals don't pay the grocery bills {getting up mid walk- 
ing about the room nervously) ^ but I'd better tell you the 
story while It's warm. A woman from the Red Cross 
came to my room the first period this morning to teach 
the children to make gun wipers. Yes, don't look so 

34 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

horrified; these amalgamated angels of mercy are right 
on the job. The children are sitting at their desks, each 
one provided with a few old stockings from the family 
rag bag and a needle laboriously threaded. Our benign 
lady in her airy Red Cross bonnet and veil and her jaunty 
French slippers flits among them and soon the old stock- 
ings are going through a transformation. She charms 
the children so that they really work. "Children, do you 
know what you are making?" Her voice is as sweet and 
soft as a marshmallow. "Gun-wipers," they all answer. 
"But I mean do you know what they are to be used 
for?" "To wipe the big guns on the ships," someone 
suggests. "No, something better than that," she purrs. 
"These are for the men in action. Every soldier in the 
field must have one hanging to his belt to wipe the blood 
off his bayonet when he gets one of those Huns." Oh, it 
makes me sick to think of it. I saw a little girl near me 
turn white and I couldn't keep still. "That's no way to 
speak to children," I said. She turned on me with a 
bayonet of a look and retorted, "Somebody has to teach 
the children patriotism when their teacher doesn't." 

Mrs. Holden. Why didn't you report her to Mr. 
Curtis? 

Helen. She reported me to Mr. Curtis. 

Mrs. Holden. Didn't he take your part? 

Helen. No. 

Mrs. Holden. I always thought he was a tender- 
hearted man. 

Helen. So he was before the war. 

Mrs. Holden. How can he change so? 

Helen. He wants to be county superintendent. He's 
campaigning on 100% Americanism. He's the one that 
started this business of taking the children into the streets 

35 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

to make speeches for the liberty loan. 

Mrs. Holden. He couldn't dismiss you, could he? 

Helen. He could recommend my dismissal to the 
school board. 

Mrs. Holden. Did they make a formal charge 
against you? How could they act so quickly? 

Helen. I don't know. I can only surmise. I have 
some Boy Scouts in my room. The Boy Scouts are told 
to spy on their teachers. Soon after the Red Cross 
woman had gone, one of the boys asked permission to 
leave the room. I suppose he didn't have any trouble 
getting the use of the telephone in the office to telephone 
to his father, as his father is one of the committee that's 
arranging for tank day and is "hand and glove" with 
the school board just now. 

Mrs. Holden. What is tank day? 

Helen. The day when a real war tank is to be ex- 
hibited on the school grounds. 

Mrs. Holden. Oh horrible! 

Helen. But tank day is to be most delightful. Be- 
sides the Chamber of Commerce and the Merchants' & 
Manufacturers' Association, the old soldiers will be there 
and all the young army and navy men who are within 
reach. The children will go through the flag drill and 
sing patriotic songs. My room is to sing the modern 
classic, "Over There," or "The Yanks Are Coming." 

Mrs. Holden. Oh Helen, I'm so glad you're out 
of it. 

Helen. But it will ring in my ears. I trained them. 

Mrs. Holden. How could you? 

Helen. To hold my job. 

Mrs. Holden. Thank God, you've failed at last. 
When did you get the word that you'd been dismissed? 

36 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Helen. By one o'clock my walking papers and the 
substitute teacher had arrived. The school board hap- 
pened to be in session this morning which made it quite 
convenient. 

Mrs. Holden. You're my own, own girl. (Goes to 
her and kisses her.) 

Helen. And I had made up my mind to hold on 
till the end. I was expecting to take the pledge with 
the rest of them next Monday. 

Mrs. Holden. What do you mean by taking the 
pledge ? 

Helen. The loyalty pledge. Don't you know about 
the loyalty pledge? They're forcing the teachers to sign 
it all over the country. 

Mrs. Holden. This is the first I've heard of it. 
What is it? 

Helen. That we declare our absolute loyalty to the 
existing government; that we recognize the laws and tra- 
ditions of the United States as superior to all others ; that 
we feel the necessity that devolves upon us of winning the 
war at any cost and that to this end we pledge our lives, 
our money and our sacred honor. To complete the bondage 
we must swear that we sign this pledge without any 
mental reservations whatsoever. 

Mrs. Holden. The teachers have to sign that? 

Helen. Yes. 

Mrs. Holden. And you would have signed it? 

Helen. We have to lie to live these days. 

Mrs. Holden. "The Lord is my Shepherd, I shall 
not want." 

Helen. So you have always taught me, but how can 
the Lord raise his head in this hell? The Lord is out- 
lawed now with the Pacificists. ( The door bell rings. 

37 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Helen goes to the door.) 

Mrs. Calkins {rushing in breathlessly) . Oh Helen! 
I'm frightened nearly to death. {To Mrs. H olden.) I 
didn't know anybody to come to but you, Mrs. Holden. 
[Drops into a chair.) Oh dear, oh dear! 

Helen and Mrs. Holden {together). Why, what's 
the matter? 

Mrs. Calkins. They've drafted him. 

Mrs. Holden. Who? 

Mrs. Calkins. Dick, my husband. 

Helen. How proud you must be. 

Mrs. Holden. I thought you said he couldn't pass 
the physical examination. 

Mrs. Calkins. They examined him again and {he- 
gins to cry) — he passed. 

Mrs. Holden. But you said he wanted to go to the 
war. I think you said he was crazy to go or something 
like that. 

Mrs. Calkins {through her tears). He's changed 
his mind. 

Helen. Glorious! Now you can pretend you're a 
war bride. You told me the other day how you envied 
the war brides. 

Mrs. Calkins. I've changed my mind too. {Wipes 
her eyes.) 

Mrs. Holden. Poor child! I'm very sorry for you. 

Helen. But the honor of it. Don't you believe In 
this war for liberty and democracy? 

Mrs. Calkins. Of course I believe In the war; 
everybody has to believe In the war, but I never thought 
of their taking Dick. I depended on his weak lungs. 

Helen. Your dependence proved weaker than his 
lungs it seems. 

38 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Mrs. Holden. Why did you come to me? I don't 
believe in the war. I can't say any of the nice things to 
you about being glad and giving him up with a smile. 
But indeed I pity anyone whose husband or son is taken. 

Mrs. Calkins. I thought you could help me. 

Helen. How in the world did you think Mother 
could help you, though she is a saint and natural guard- 
ian angel? 

Mrs. Calkins. Can't you intercede with the draft 
board? Mr. Woodhill's on the board in our district. 
He thinks you're such a good woman. He's always 
praised your work in the church so much. You go to 
him and tell him you think Dick ought to be let off for 
my sake and the baby's. {Takes Mrs. Holden's hand 
imploringly.) You will now, won't you? 

Mrs. Holden. Poor, foolish, little girl, don't you 
know that I was put out of the church after the trouble 
at the Ladies' Aid meeting? 

Mrs. Calkins. Yes, but Mr. Woodhill told Father 
that he still respects you as a woman. 

Helen. What a great concession. 

Mrs. Holden. No, Katherine, I couldn't go to Mr. 
Woodhill. 

Mrs. Calkins. Oh, what shall I do? I'm almost 
crazy. What if he should get killed? I've been imag- 
ining myself a widow all the way down here. 

Helen. A war widow! That ought to thrill you. 
Could anything be more romanitcally patriotic than that? 

Mrs. Holden. Don't, Helen. It's too serious. 

Mrs. Calkins. Of course I'm patriotic, absolutely 
patriotic, and I do appreciate the noble sacrifice for coun- 
try and all that, but, oh dear, if — he — shouldn't come 
back. Oh, I'm so frightened, maybe oh, dear! Well, 

39 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 
I've thought of another plan. 



Mrs. Holden. Another plan? 

Mrs. Calkins. What's this new idea about being a 
— what do you call it? — a Conscience ? 

Mrs. Holden. Conscientious Objector? 

Mrs. Calkins. Yes. Helen, isn't your fiancee one 
of those? 

Helen. Yes, but unfortunately he's a real one. 

Mrs. Calkins. Couldn't you persuade him to get 
Dick in with them? Dick's willing to do any kind of 
work. I know he is though Father does say he's lazy. 
Helen, you plead with Mr. McConnell for my sake to 
help Dick. I'd do it myself but I don't know Mr. Mc- 
Connell. 

Helen. I've been pleading with him to leave the 
Conscientious Objectors. I don't want him shot at sun- 
rise. 

Mrs. Calkins. I wouldn't like that either. 

Mrs. Holden. You seem to have a peculiar idea 
about the Conscientious Objectors, Katherine. Don't you 
know that they are military outlaws? The absolutists 
like Joseph McConnell won't obey any military orders. 
They even refuse to wear the uniform. 

Mrs. Calkins. Oh, Dick wouldn't be that way. He'd 
be glad to wear the uniform. We both respect the uni- 
form. 

Helen. Why shouldn't you when the uniform is so 
pre-eminently respectable? 

Mrs. Calkins. He'd do anything they told him to if 
he only didn't have to fight. Couldn't he be that kind 
of a Con — oh, dear, that name — Conscientious Objector? 

Mrs. Holden. In that case he would have to belong 
to some church that had an anti-war tenet in its creed. 

40 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

His church has no such tenet. 

Mrs. Calkins. I think he'd be willing to change. 

Mrs. Holden. I'm afraid It's too late. Those 
churches aren't taking in any new members subject to 
the draft. 

Mrs. Calkins. What church does Mr. McConnell 
belong to? 

Helen. None. He's a Socialist. 

Mrs. Calkins. Does that exempt him? 

Helen. It seems to keep him out. 

Mrs. Holden. Have you tried to get your husband 
exempted on the ground of having dependents? 

Mrs. Calkins. They say he doesn't support us. Just 
because Father's wealthy isn't any excuse for them tak- 
ing him away from me and the baby as if we didn't 
count. It's a mean shame. There're lots of men that 
aren't married that they could take. He does support 
us — some. He stays at the office all he has time to, but 
lately he's been so rushed. You know he's trying to win 
the golf championship cup for our club. 

Helen. Sufficient grounds for exemption, surely. 

Mrs. Calkins. No, I didn't mean that, but he's so 
upset he couldn't do anything today. He couldn't even 
go out to the links, and he's afraid they'll lose without 
him. 

Helen. Maybe the draft board is afraid they'll lose 
the war without him. 

Mrs. Calkins. Then they ought to give him a good 
place. He could be such a help somewhere — where it's 
safe, of course. 

Mrs. Holden. Hasn't your father got a pull of 
some kind that he could use in his behalf? Have you 
seen a lawyer? 

41 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Mrs. Calkins, The trouble Is Father's so against 
him. He says, "Let him go; maybe It will make a man 
of him." Father's getting so hard hearted. Those were 
exactly his words. But you've given me an Idea. I'll 
see Father's lawyer. That's the very thing. Thank you 
for giving me such a good suggestion. I'm ready to shout 
{jumps up and hugs Mrs. Holden), I feel so happy 
about It. Funny I didn't think of It myself. 

Mrs. Holden. So I did help you after all. 

Helen. It takes Mother to give aid and comfort to 
the enemy. 

Mrs. Calkins. Now, you won't tell anybody that I 
came here, will you? You know It might reflect on my 
patriotism and I'm thoroughly loyal. I truly am. No- 
body worked harder than I did In the Liberty Bond drive. 
Why, I got all tired out. But I want to do my bit, and 
I'm willing to make great sacrifices. 

Helen {looking out of the window). Here comes 
the minister. 

Mrs. Calkins. Oh mercy! I wouldn't have him 
see m.e here for anything. It might get to Mrs. Wickers- 
helm and I'm on her loyalty committee. I'm almost as 
much afraid of her as I am of the draft board. Helen, 
what can I do? {Looks about the room helplessly.) 

Helen. Here, come out this way. I don't want to 
see him, either. We'll leave him to Mother. 

Mrs. Calkins. Oh, hurry up. I'm so scared. ( They 
go out at the right.) 

(Mrs. Holden lets in Mr. Thorp, the minister. He 
is a fairly young man with an intelligent face. He wears 
a well tailored business suit, quite without clerical distinc- 
tiveness.) 

Mr. Thorp. Hov/ do you do, Mrs. Holden? 

42 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

(Shakes hands with her.) 

Mrs. Holden. Thank you, I'm quite well. (Pushes 
forward a chair for him.) 

Mr. Thorp. Perhaps you have wondered why I 
have not been to see you before this. 

Mrs. Holden (sitting down). On the contrary, I 
am wondering why you have come at all. But be seated. 
I would like to have you tell me. 

Mr. Thorp (sitting down). I want you to know 
that I deeply regret your separation from the church. 

Mrs. Holden. Didn't you sanction my expulsion? 

Mr. Thorp. I did not, and I came to tell you that 
I did not. I opposed it, but I was forced to give in to 
my trustees. 

Mrs. Holden. You used not to be subject to the 
force of your trustees. 

Mr. Thorp. The situation is different now. 

Mrs. Holden. Are you forced also to give in to the 
local Council of Defense? I understand that you have 
become a member of it. 

Mr. Thorp. I feel that I am called as a moderator 
at this time when hysteria is taking hold of the people. 

Mrs. Holden. Oh, that is your function now, is it? 
Moderator! I remember the time when you preached 
that no man can serve two masters. 

Mr. Thorp. Why do you doubt me? I am serving 
only one master — God. 

Mrs. Holden. The war-god. 

Mr. Thorp. I am speaking only the truth from my 
pulpit, but I cannot fly in the face of public opinion. I 
am a true Pacifist, but — 

Mrs. Holden. Yes, but — a Pacifist but. I notice 
that many of our old Pacifist pillars are now becoming 

43 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Pacifist buts. Perhaps you are like another minister of 
my acquaintance who says, yes, he's a Pacificist, with the 
accent on the fist. 

Mr. Thorp. I am not flippant. 

Mrs. Holden. But you are politic. 

Mr. Thorp. How do you know what I am since you've 
stopped coming to hear me? — you whom I have always 
depended upon to back me up in all my endeavors. 

Mrs. Holden. Would you wish me to continue in 
attendance when I've been excommunicated? 

Mr. Thorp. The church is greater than its officials. 
You will always be welcome in my congregation. 

Mrs. Holden. Mr. Thorp, you know that in the 
past I have been a most sincere admirer of your preach- 
ing. It has meant much to me, but as you say, the situa- 
tion has changed. I am better satisfied now to spend my 
Sunday mornings at home reading Tolstoy. 

Mr. Thorp. Didn't I teach you to love Tolstoy? 

Mrs. Holden. You did and you opened a great 
new vision to me. I have been following that vision to 
the best of my ability. Why have you deserted it? 

Mr. Thorp. I have not deserted it. I am follow- 
ing it In another way. 

Mrs. Holden. There Is no other way. Before this 
country entered the World War you declared yourself 
uncompromisingly opposed to participation in it. It was 
less than a year ago that you preached a sermon against 
preparedness that brought down upon your head the 
wrath of war mongers here and elsewhere. Even after 
congress declared war you continued to criticise the pow- 
ers of plutocracy in no uncertain terms. Then I thought 
with joy, here is one m.an who will not topple over under 
pressure. I can depend upon the pastor of my church to 

44 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

stand against war as long as he has breath to speak. 

Mr. Thorp. Wherein have I failed? I am still 
opposed to war as a principle, but this war has to be 
fought out. We have put our hand to the plow and 
there is no turning back. 

Mrs. Holden. Why did you put your hand to the 
plow? 

Mr. Thorp. I had no choice in the matter. 

Mrs. Holden. You mean you dared not refuse. 
The penalty was too great. The price of a free con- 
science was more than you could pay. So you sold your 
soul for safe conduct across the years of war, thinking 
perhaps that after it is all over you can make yourself 
right by being a Pacifist again and preaching your old 
doctrines in peace and security. But who will believe you 
then? 

Mr. Thorp. I am preaching the same doctrines that 
I have always taught — love and brotherhood. 

Mrs. Holden. And war. 

Mr. Thorp. I cannot stop the war. 

Mrs. Holden. You can refuse to acquiesce In It. 
Although you may explain your preaching, how can you 
justify your public activities? You are lending your name 
and your voice to every enterprise of the war machine in 
this locality — presiding at war work garden fetes, mak- 
ing heroic farewell speeches to the conscript soldiers, 
doing anything and everything that you are asked to do. 
For what purpose are you on the Council of Defense? 

Mr. Thorp. There are a lot of hot-headed young 
business m.en and choleric old retired capitalists on the 
Council and I consented to become a member because I 
thought that by being on the Inside I could keep a certain 
check on their actions and In this way render a great ser- 

45 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

vice to the community. 

Mrs. Holden. And where are you keeping a check 
on their actions? Haven't they lately sent resolutions to 
Washington demanding the death penalty for all who 
oppose the war? I tell you, Mr. Thorp, I would rather 
be a victim of that law than to stand as sponsor for it. 

Mr. Thorp. I do not stand as sponsor for it. The 
resolution was passed when I was not present. I have 
expressed my disapproval of it. 

Mrs. Holden. You haven't expressed it loud enough 
to be heard above the w^ar din. Your name is linked 
with the resolution. 

Mr. Thorp. I know. I am very sorry that it hap- 
pened so. 

Mrs. Holden. They are using you. Can't you see 
it? They are making your name stand for what they 
wish. They are determined to punish you for once hav- 
ing been a Pacifist. 

Mr. Thorp. You are mistaken. I. am leading them. 
I am subtly turning the public mind — that is the public 
mind within my reach — from the more brutal conceptions 
of war into an appreciation of idealism. I am doing a 
greater work than I have ever done before. I am flow- 
ing with the stream in order to cleanse it. 

Mrs. Holden. And the putrefaction of the stream 
has taken away your virtue as a cleanser. What did you 
say just now about being forced by your trustees? You 
are the minister of a great wealthy church; bankers and 
merchants and government officials are in your congrega- 
tion and among your trustees. I have known you in the 
past to say daring things from your pulpit. You have 
hurled in the teeth of these men most radical, socialistic 
doctrines. I remember when more than half of your 

46 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

trustees resigned because you had gone too far for them. 
You smiled and went serenely on preaching what they 
called anarchy. At that time you felt no danger. If 
some people left your church others would take their 
places. You were a popular minister. If you were not 
wanted at that church others were calling you. 

Mr. Thorp. Why do you think that I am doing 
differently now? 

Mrs. Holden. Because if you did not now preach ac- 
cording to the dictates of your trustees and the Council 
of Defense you would not only be put out of your church 
but no other church would have you and if you tried to 
hire a hall and speak independently you would be put in 
jail. 

Mr. Thorp. I could do no good in jail. 

Mrs. Holden. John the Baptist went to jail; so did 
Savonarola. 

Mr. Thorp. I do not live in the time of John the 
Baptist, nor of Savonarola. 

Mrs. Holden. You live in a time of equal hypo- 
crisy when the demands of conscience require the sam.e 
sacrifices. You were put to the test. You yielded to 
hypocrisy. Then the powers that you had attacked had 
you in their clutch. "We will bring this man to time," 
they said, "this Pacifist, this Socialist, this radical, this 
disrupter of our sovereignty. He shall do our bidding; he 
shall be our gilded mouthpiece. He shall whip into line 
with his eloquence those whom this sam.e eloquence has 
m.ade derelict." Such is your m.oderatorship. You are 
their henchman, their flunky, their hired fiddler. 

Mr. Thorp {standing up, in anger). How do you 
dare say such things to me? 

Mrs. Holden. I don't know how I dare, but before 

47 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

I cease to dare, I want to ask you one question. If you 
believe In the war, Mr. Thorp, why don't you go? 

Mr. Thorp (hesitating). I — I have other work to 
do. 

Mrs. Holden. That Is a very poor excuse. To 
get behind the man behind the gun In a safe and comfort- 
able position, to push from the rear, what bravery Is there 
In that? If you believe In the war, prove It. The recruit- 
ing offices are open and you are within the age limit. 

Mr. Thorp. I did not come here to quarrel with you. 
I came to tell you that I wished you still to consider me 
your pastor. 

Mrs. Holden. No, I cannot for you have repu- 
diated In both words and deeds the things which you 
taught me to speak and live. I am on strike against the 
war. I know that only through the absolute refusal of 
responsible people to have anything whatever to do with 
war or military preparedness can war ever be eliminated 
as an Institution among men. You have been my teacher 
In these Ideas and for this reason I owe a debt to you 
which I must not forget. Forgive me If I have spoken 
passionately. My disappointment in you has been keen. 

Mr. Thorp. Change Is a law of nature. We must 
change our opinions sometimes with the course of world 
events. It Is narrow not to do so. The war has stirred 
the people young and old, rich and poor, to an enthusiasm 
they have never known before. It has aroused in the 
masses a quickened consciousness of moral Imperative. It 
is daily creating nev/ spiritual values which we have to 
recognize. 

Mrs. Holden. War is as old as history. This war 
Is no different from any other war except in Intensity and 
stupendousness. War cannot create new spiritual values 

48 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

for it destorts all values. Moral imperative directed to 
war runs into emotional debauchery as quicksilver coming 
in contact with grosser metals absorbs them and becomes 
contaminated. 

Mr. Thorp. Christ was a militant in some respects. 
You cannot deny that. He threw the money changers out 
of the temple. 

Mrs. Holden. Christ was a moral militant, not a 
warrior. He was never a patriot nor a conqueror. He 
threw the money changers out of the temple in protest 
against the commercial domination of religion. He did 
not enter the temple armed to kill and he did not kill. 

Mr. Thorp. He hurled invective against the Scribes 
and Pharisees. 

Mrs. Holden. Yes, as a rebel like the Pacifists of 
today. And when attacked he put up no defense. He 
turned the other cheek and was crucified. So are the 
Conscientious Objectors doing now. This is the moral 
offensive of non-resistance. It is the cardinal principle 
of Christianity which defies the pharisaical church of the 
present as in the days of Christ. 

Mr. Thorp. There is some truth in what you say. 
I may have wandered a little from the Tolstoyan way of 
thinking, but we cannot repudiate the church entirely. It 
is the church which preserves to the world the teachings 
of Jesus, without which we should indeed be adrift. 

Mrs. Holden. It is through the church that the 
teachings of Jesus are being lost and the name of Chris- 
tianity discredited. 

Mr. Thorp. We must purify the church. 

Mrs. Holden. It has become too rancid for purifica- 
tion. The spirit of Christ has to be rediscovered and the 
path of the cross retrod in every crisis of the world. 

49 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Otherwise love becomes a platitude. 

Mr. Thorp. I have cast my lot with the church. 

Mrs. Holden. I have cast mine with the publicans 
and sinners. 

Mr. Thorp. The masses need the moral bulwark of 
the church. With all Its faults It Is a fundamental social 
necessity. 

Mrs. Holden. The m.asses need to think and act 
for themselves. As a part of the masses myself I am 
trying my prowess without the church. 

Mr. Thorp. I cannot desert my post of spiritual 
leadership In time of calamity. 

Mrs. Holden. Spiritual leadership Is not a profes- 
sion; It Is a renunciation. 

Mr. Thorp {looking at his watch). I cannot argue 
with you longer. I have an engagement this afternoon. 
It Is getting late. I see we have no common ground on 
which to meet. 

Mrs. Holden. So It seems. I will not detain you. 

Mr. Thorp. Good-bye. I will not call again. 

Mrs. Holden. Good-bye. 

(Mr. Thorp goes out while Mrs. Holden stands at 
the mantlepiece, thinking.) 

Helen {opening the door at the right). Mother, 
Mother, what have you been doing. Joseph and I were 
shocked. 

Mrs. Holden. You eaves droppers! 

Joseph {coming in with Helen). We couldn't hear 
anything but tones of voices, but we judged that you laid 
him out. 

Helen. And yet I don't doubt that she believes she 
can still redeem him. She's afflicted v/Ith faith in God 
and man. 

50 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Mrs. Holden. Joseph, this girl Is becoming a cynic. 

Joseph. No, she's only boiling over a little. When 
she finally gets the bubbles condensed she'll be as thor- 
ough going a revolutionist as you and I are. 

Mrs. Holden. I'm not a revolutionist. I'm a Paci- 
fist. 

Joseph. It's all the same. You're a new revolu- 
tionist. 

Mrs. Holden. But I don't believe in any kind of 
war. 

Joseph. Neither do I. That's the new revolution. 
It's out to destroy a double headed monster — the eco- 
nomic system that creates the material causes of war and 
the social ethics that makes honorable the method of war. 

Mrs. Holden. Maybe I'm a revolutionist then, but 
I thought revolution meant more fighting. 

Joseph. So It does to those who see only half of it. 
We are so used to expressing every move in terms of 
bloodshed that pacifism seems too drastic an innovation. 

Helen. Who ever heard of a revolution without 
bloodshed? 

Joseph. It's the coming phenomenon. 

Mrs. Holden. What will be Its method of combat? 

Joseph. The barrage fire of propaganda. 

Helen. With free speech and free press cut off. 
Ridiculous ! 

Joseph. There's propaganda In the silent protest. 
When we can't speak our principles we have to live them. 

Mrs. Holden. Or die for them. 

Joseph. Dying for them is just the last act of living 
for them. We don't die or even go to jail if we can 
honorably do anything else. We aren't martyrs except as 
a final challenge. 

51 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Mrs. Holden. Current history is repeating the 
middle ages. Now patriotism is the world's religion and 
the flag is the fetish of worship as the crucifix was then. 

Joseph. Which makes the present war as ecstatic as 
a crusade and condemns us Non-resistants as the vilest of 
heretics. 

Helen. And how can you and Mother stop this 
modern idolatry with a few tender principles? 

Joseph. By applying them at the base. 

Helen. You're such a visionary, Joseph, and so is 
Mother. Here you are defying the draft law and Mother 
ignoring the espionage act as if you thought the salvation 
of the world depended on your contrariness. 

Joseph. It does. It depends on the contrariness of 
the masses and we are a part of the masses. 

Mrs. Holden. Why, that's almost what I said to 
Mr. Thorp. 

Helen. Great minds, I suppose. You're both too 
much for me. Why can't you be practical and accept the 
public state of mind as it is? 

Joseph. Why do you persist in setting your face 
against us? Is it to try us, to satisfy yourself that we 
can't be corrupted? 

Helen. Maybe you're steel enough to go through 
the fire of martyrdom, but I'm not of that mettle, and 
when you go through you drag me through against my 
will. If Mother continues to speak her mind and you 
hold out as a Conscientious Objector there's no alterna- 
tive but martyrdom for all of us. Why won't you be 
reasonable and accept some kind of military service? 
You've had plenty of good chances. 

Joseph. I'm not looking for a safe berth. 

Mrs. Holden. Helen, Helen, how can you? Hasn't 

52 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

he enough to undergo without your cruel jibes? 

Joseph. Oh, don't mind her. She's only trying to 
toughen me for the jolt. Wait till I'm a military con- 
vict. She'll not turn a hair. And what's more surpris- 
ing, I think I'm going to have my mother with me, too. 

Mrs. Holden. Your mother? Never. She's wor- 
shipping at the shrine of Wilson's ideals. 

Joseph. She's getting disillusioned. Magnificent 
ideals, yes, but are they substantiated by deeds? Aren't 
they a little exotic under the circumstances? Such ques- 
tions as these are beginning to prick her skin. 

Mrs. Holden. Can she really be losing her faith in 
the war? 

Joseph. It's being jerked from her by what's actually 
going on. 

Mrs. Holden. And she's too honest to deny what 
she sees. I'm sure of that. 

Joseph. Troubles are coming her way thick and fast. 
The latest is that she's turned out of her apartment. 

Mrs. Holden. Why is she turned out of her apart- 
ment? 

Joseph. Well, ever since certain good church ladies 
got themselves into ill repute on account of unpatriotic 
actions at a locally famous Ladies' Aid meeting, Mother's 
been under suspicion. Although she didn't get the glit- 
tering newspaper headlines and the editorial roastings 
that you did, still she got enough publicity to start things. 
Then I arrived in town and began to frequent her apart- 
ment. Yesterday the landlord told her that there had 
been so much complaint from the other tenants that he 
was obliged to give her notice to vacate on the first of 
the month. Of course she thought she'd broken some 
house rule — left her garbage can in the wrong place or 

53 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

something of that kind — but no, there was some dark and 
sinister cause which she couldn't dig out of him for quite 
a while. 

Helen. "Suspicion of disloyalty." The same parrot 
words, I'll warrant. I can hear him saying them to her 
just as Mr. Curtis said them to me this morning. 

Joseph. That's the formula. Then she told him her 
story as she told it to the women at the church. 

Mrs. Holden. Didn't it satisfy him to know of her 
son in France? 

Joseph. She has another son who fights on another 
front. 

Helen. So can't you see the trouble you're making? 

Mrs. Holden. She shall come here. They haven't 
taken our home away from us yet and she shall share it 
with us. I'm going right away to get her. 

Joseph. I don't believe she'll talk to you. The 
revolution is making inroads on her consciousness and 
she's up in the air trying to resist it. 

Helen„ Trust Mother to bring her down. Look at 
her. She's beaming all over with the prospect of getting 
your mother solid for you. 

Mrs. Holden. We'll all be together yet. Isn't it 
splendid? And the world will come to our way of think- 
ing, too — sometime. I have the faith. {Goes out at 
right.) 

Helen. Yes, she has the faith, but I want the reality. 

Joseph. We have to make our own reality out of 
sheer ideals these days. Otherwise we'll get only rank 
realism. 

Helen. Ideals, ideals, I hate them. They're noth- 
ing but vapor, mist, smoke. 

Joseph. They're the first draft of reality. 

54 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Helen. Have them If you want to, but why not take 
them ready made from the novelty stock on hand instead 
of working up a rival lot of your own that only make for 
the reality of prison? 

Joseph. My own suit me best. 

Helen. Yours are too futuristic. What can a hand- 
ful of Conscientious Objectors do against a whole nation 
singing psalms and waving palms, — I mean singing the 
Star Spangled Banner and waving the flag — for a holy 
war of allied salntllness against German deviltry? 

Joseph. We can weaken the morale of nationalism 
and form a nucleus for future world citizenship. 

Helen. A nucleus which will be ground under the 
military boot heel till no one will know that It ever ex- 
isted. It's vanity to follow such Ideals when there's noth- 
ing left In the world but carnality and hatred. 

Joseph. Vanity or not, that's the way I'm headed. 

Helen. Why do somiC of us have to be young at this 
time. Why can't we all be old and ready for death? 

Joseph. We'll never be ready for death. The old 
men who send the boys out to do the dying thank their 
stars every day that they don't have to do It themselves. 

Helen. But old people learn to expect death and 
naturally don't shrink from It as we do, and yet the brunt 
of It all falls on us. I wasn't made for sacrifice. 

Joseph. Neither was I, but we have to accept the 
heritage of our generation. 

Helen. A gloomy estate, without hope or beauty or 
laughter. 

Joseph. Even so, the boon Is to us young bloods, for 
we've got the nerve to act and the pep to make the su- 
preme effort for whatever we believe In, while the grey 
heads only plan for us or pass judgment upon us as 

55 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

they rot in their easy chairs. 

Helen. And if we beheve in nothing, the boon Is 
nothing. 

Joseph. How can we believe in nothing when we're 
the center of the world's virility? It's inevitable for us 
to have some purpose if we're truly alive. We may have 
to be sacrificed, but we don't need to take it like sheep. 
We can mutiny against the blind obedience of the mass. 

Helen. Why not wallow with the mass in blood and 
patriotism? It's so much easier. 

Joseph. Now, my dear girl, if I thought you meant 
half of what you say, I'd stop arguing and clear out, but 
I believe that down in your heart you're just as willing 
as I am to take your chances with the anti-war crowd. 
You feel the sting of it worse because in a way you get 
it worse. I know about what's coming to me, but your 
fate isn't so circumscribed. 

Helen. Mine is circumscribed by my inability to feel 
the confidence that you feel in the worth of principles. I 
think your purpose futile. I see no future for you or me 
or your stupid humanity. 

Joseph. Then let's live in the present. It's time to 
plunge. Won't you do it? 

Helen. Now, Joseph, don't try any more to persuade 
me. I've told you it isn't practicable. 

Joseph. We could have a few weeks of happiness. 

Helen. And then what? 

Joseph. One day at a time is all any one can travel. 

Helen. No, I couldn't endure it. To be married 
to you and then have you torn from me by the military 
claw that has its talons at all our throats — I'm bitter 
enough as it is. 

Joseph. You might forget your bitterness. 

56 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Helen. You're selfish. Do you think that I could 
keep on living and working if you were my husband and 
in prison? It would be simpler to give you up as a lost 
hope and follow my own course of misery. 

Joseph. Helen, you say such wild things. 

Helen. It's foolish to accept happiness when you 
know it must be killed. 

Joseph. Can't it be buried for future resurrection? 

Helen. I can't take such a heroic step. I haven't 
the moral courage. 

Joseph. You had the moral courage to object to the 
Red Cross woman this morning. 

Helen. That was just an impulse. 

Joseph. Well, get another. 

Helen. Now don't talk about it any more. I've told 
you. No, nearly every day this week. 

Joseph. All right. I won't ask you again — for a 
while. 

Helen. I can't see your logic. Here you are resist- 
ing the military authorities when you claim to be an abso- 
lute Non-resistant. 

Joseph. I'm not resisting the military authorities, not 
in the least. I don't have anything to do with the mili- 
tary authorities, They can do with me as they please. 
I refuse the draft and take the consequences. 

Helen. You're neither one thing nor the other. 
Why don't you either obey them or fight them with their 
own weapons? If I were refusing the draft, I'd turn 
and kill the people who tried to force it on me. 

Joseph. What good would that do? 

Helen. It would at least be positive. 

Joseph. If you think Non-resistance is negative, 
you're very much mistaken. In the event of war It's a 

57 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

direct affront to the system that lines up one nationality 
of working men against another and tells them to kill 
each other. "I won't" is more positive than "I will" 
when the world's going headlong to destruction. 

Helen. But "I won't" is resistance. 

Joseph. No, resistance is collision with another force, 
a reciprocal "I'll down you." Non-resistance is withheld 
force. It neither attacks nor defends. It stands. It is 
utterly immovable unless it has free play. Then it's the 
sporting energy of creative evolution. In time of stress 
it's the staying instinct of humanity. 

Helen. Humanity — that torpid beast that has no in- 
stinct higher than to besot itself with war. 

Joseph. Ultimately humanity will know itself and 
will cease destroying itself. 

Helen. You're too vague and abstract. 

Joseph. At close range humanity does seem rather 
sluggish, I'll admit. 

Helen. Then you're a pessimist, after all. 

Joseph. No, not ultimately. 

Helen. I'm not concerned with ultimately. Fm 
talking about now. 

Joseph. I wanted to talk about now, but you wouldn't 
let me. You switched me off onto ultimately. 

Helen. Don't tamper with now, it's dangerous. It's 
death. 

Joseph. Socrates says, "Life proceeds from death." 
Let's experiment on that theory {Goes to her and takes her 
hand.) Helen, you're fighting against your own desire. 
We should have been married long ago. Why do you put 
it off any longer? 

Helen. I'm afraid of the crash. 

Joseph. My court-martial? 

5S 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Helen. I can't meet it. 

Joseph. Then shall we break off? {Walks away 
frojn her.) I'll go away forever If you say so. {Looks 
at her enquiringly. As she makes no answer he continues 
quietly.) I think I've told you of my Irish great-grand- 
parents who had a son who renounced the faith of his 
fathers. He was disinherited and his birth entry erased 
from the family records. He faced his destiny alone. I 
guess I can if I have to. He was my grandfather. 

Helen {running up to him). No, no, Joseph, I love 
you. But, oh, Joseph, {her voice shakes with emotion)^ 
my body is cold as if it vv^ere wrapped in a shroud. Your 
ideals — they benum^b me. I know you're right, but I 
can't be like you. I can't be a concrete wall withstand- 
ing the coercion of the government and the assaults of 
the mob. I'm of common, ordinary, mortal clay, and I 
have to crawl to shelter on m.y stomach and hide behind 
the iav/s of the land when I can't uphold them. 

Joseph. You can do anything, Helen, for you have 
the courage to express your doubts. {Kisses her gently.) 
You will? 

Helen {turning from him as if suddenly worried). 
What about Mother? — and your mother? 

Joseph. Let them take care of each other for a 
while. It won't be long. 

Helen {goes to the table and picks up her school note 
hooks). Look at this. I've got all these reports to hand 
in to the new teacher. 

Joseph. Why do you have to hand in reports when 
you've been thrown out of school? 

Helen. Oh, it wouldn't be right to let them go. It 
wouldn't be right to the children. The children didn't 
throw me out. 

59 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Joseph. Who says you haven't got a conscience? 
Bring your reports along. We'll do them together. 
{Picks up a note book and looks into it.) 

Helen {laughing) . What does a mechanical drafts- 
man know about sixth grade geography and arithmetic? 

Joseph {turning over the pages). I'll study them 
while you go and pack your suit case. 

Helen. Now? Do you mean this afternoon? 

Joseph. What's the use in waiting? 

Helen. Oh, there's so much to think of. Who will 
we get to marry us? I don't want any war ranting min- 
ister to bless our union. 

Joseph. We can get a justice at the court house when 
we go for the license. {Looking at the clock.) And 
you'd better hurry up, for I have to catch the five o'clock 
train tonight and I don't want to go alone. 

Helen. But how horrible it seems to be married in 
a court room. 

Joseph. If we were anarchists we might marry our- 
selves, but as socially conscious beings we believe in so- 
ciety's right to a record, don't we? 

Helen. I'm not Interested enough In society to ques- 
tion Its right to anything. I follow its dictates as the 
easiest way out. 

Joseph. In the universal commune where marriage 
will not be commercial, society won't have to worry so 
much about marriage and divorce. 

Helen. I care nothing about your universal com- 
mune. In It or out of it I marry for life. 

Joseph. It's human nature to marry for life. 

Helen. But not the fashion now. 

Joseph. The universal commune will give human 
nature a chance. Sex perversion will have to abate with 

60 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

the elimination of the idle rich and the economic inde- 
pendence of women. 

Helen. Women's status is advancing. We are grad- 
uating from chattels of men to chattels of war. As the 
latter, we are graciously permitted to marry for a day 
that the race may be replenished. Then our husbands 
are wrenched away from us and driven into war or 
thrown into prison, while we are left to an "economic in- 
dependence" that doesn't bode well for the next genera- 
tion. 

Joseph. The next generation will have to get us out 
of this economic and mihtary slavery if we can't do it in 
our day. 

Helen. I don't believe in begetting the next genera- 
tion while the world's in this hell. 

Joseph. How can this hell be subdued except through 
conscious loving procreation? The world needs a new 
breed of human beings. 

Helen. So you're not an up-to-date birth-controllist? 

Joseph. Rational people have no need of artificial 
birth control. 

Helen {going to the writing desk). But then the 
conflict of Deus Homo and the natural man. However, 
let it rest for the present. I'll write a note to Mother 
and then I'll get ready. {Door hell rings.) Oh, Joseph, 
go to the door, I'm too busy. (Joseph goes to the door.) 

Mrs. Calkins {rushes in). Oh Helen, where's your 
mother? I think I'm going to get it fixed up all right 
about Dick. 

Helen. You always were a lucky girl, Katherine. 
How did you do it? 

Mrs. Calkins. I telephoned to Father's lawyer and 
he's either going to get him exempted or into the hos- 

61 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

pital corps or something. I'm so relieved. I feel ten 
years younger. 

Helen. I congratulate you. You haven't met my 
friend, Mr. McConnell, I believe. Mrs. Calkins, this is 
Pvlr. McConnell. 

Mrs. Calkins {going up to him and shaking hands 
while Helen turns back to her writing). Oh, Mr. Mc- 
Connell, I'm so glad to meet you. I've heard so much 
about you and read about you in the papers, too, and I've 
been so curious to see what you looked like. {Looks him 
over.) So you're the slacker they tell about. 

Helen. Rub it into him, Katherine. {Leaves the 
note on the table.) You'll excuse me a few minutes, 
won't you? {Goes out at right.) 

Mrs. Calkins {sitting down leisurely). You're not 
at all my idea of a slacker. 

Joseph. Thank you. 

Mrs. Calkins. I was thinking of going to see you 
to get you to help me about Dick, my husband. You 
know he almost got drafted, but I'm so encouraged now. 
I think it's going to come out all right. We were con- 
sidering his being a Conscience — there, I've forgotten 
that name again. 

Joseph. Conscientious Objector? 

Mrs. Calkins. Yes, but of course the kind that the 
government sanctions, — the kind that are allowed to wear 
the uniform and do service but don't have to get into the 
actual fighting. That's so horrid, and those that help 
in other ways are just as important in winning the war. 
Still, I've heard people say that all Conscientious Ob- 
jectors are slackers. Tell me, are they? 

Joseph. Some of us are very slack in obeying mil- 
itary orders. 

62 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Mrs. Calkins. Now, my husband isn't a slacker at 
all. We're both extremely patriotic. We adore the 
flag and worship our country, but we have a child and 
everybody knows it isn't right for a married man to risk 
his life and put his child in danger of orphanhood unless 
it's absolutely necessary. There are still plenty of un- 
married men who could go. There's you, for instance. 
There's no excuse for you not going. 

Joseph. I offer no excuse. 

Mrs. Calkins. I don't quite understand about you. 
You're not a church member, they say. 

Joseph. They speak the truth. 

Mrs. Calkins. Now, I'm told that to get in with 
the regular Conscientious Objectors you not only have to 
be a church member but a micmber of some queer kind 
of a church. Our church isn't on the list it seems, so 
Dick couldn't be an applicant. If he couldn't, then how 
in the world can you? 

Joseph. I'm not an applicant. 

Mrs. Calkins. Then what are you any way? 

Joseph. A slacker. Didn't the papers say so? 

Mrs. Calkins. Yes, I know they did, but I'm trying 
to think the best of you for Helen's sake. One does hear 
awful things about you. You know they even say that 
you're an anarchist and want to overthrow the govern- 
ment — with bombs. 

Joseph. I don't like bombs. I'm working on another 
m.odus operandi. 

Mrs. Calkins. But why should the government be 
overthrown at all? Don't you know that this is the 
freest and best government in the whole world? Though 
I'm a Republican and naturally don't like the Democrats 
very well, still we're all united on the war, except, of 

63 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

course, you terrible Socialists, who even want to break 
up the home. 

Joseph. We're a bad lot, I know. 

Mrs. Calkins. The home is the foundation of so- 
ciety and should not be broken up. 

Joseph. I agree with you. It should not be broken 
up. 

Mrs. Calkins. Do you believe that all the money 
in the world should be divided up equally among all the 
people? Why, if that was done it wouldn't be any time 
till it v/as all back in the same hands again. My hus- 
band explained that point to me. They discuss all those 
deep questions at the golf club. 

Joseph. The golf club has come to a wise conclusion. 

Mrs. Calkins. Well, then what do you believe? 

Joseph. I believe that golf Is an unproductive occu- 
pation. 

Mrs. Calkins. Golf Is a very healthful exercise. 
Any doctor will tell you that. 

Joseph. Then give the working man a shot at It 
sometimes. Open up the clubs to the public. 

Mrs. Calkins. Why, there Isn't room for everybody. 

Joseph. Some day they will have to make room for 
everybody. 

Mrs. Calkins. We don't all occupy the same posi- 
tion in society. What would the working men do if it 
wasn't for the rich m.en to give them work? 

Joseph. What would the rich men do If It wasn't 
for the working men to make them rich? 

Mrs. Calkins. You certainly do have funny ideas. 
I suppose if you had your way, you'd m.ake everybody 
work. 

Joseph. Yes, and I'd let everybody play, too. Don't 

64 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

you think that work and play should be divided up a 
little? 

Mrs. Calkins. Some people aren't strong enough to 
work. My husband Isn't. You know he almost didn't 
pass the physical examination for the army and then he 
got better and did. 

Joseph. Playing golf put him Into condition, I sup- 
pose. Maybe a little plowing would have done the same. 

Mrs. Calkins. But I didn't want him to get too 
strong on account of the draft. There's the baby to 
think of. Dick Is a husband and father. 

Joseph. Aren't the working men husbands and 
fathers? 

Mrs. Calkins. But you're not. It's your duty to 
go and protect those that are needed at home. It's cow- 
ardly for a big, strong man like you to try to keep out 
of fighting. 

Joseph. I'm not trying to keep out of fighting. I'm 
merely refusing to fight. 

Mrs. Calkins. I don't see what the difference Is. 
You're refusing to defend your country and your flag 
when you have nothing to keep you back. 

Joseph. I have something to keep me back. 

Mrs. Calkins. I'd like to know what It Is. 

Joseph. I don't believe In countries and flags. 

Mrs. Calkins. Well, you deserve to be punished, 
and I don't see how Helen can listen to such talk — and 
yet you haven't talked half as bad as I expected from 
what I heard about you. You really kind of mix me up. 

Helen (who has just come in carrying a suit case). 
Don't listen to his talk, Katherlne. He's enough to mix 
anybody up. I've got so I don't pay any attention to 
what he says. ( Takes her hat and coat from the chair 

65 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

where she left them mid puts them on hurriedly.) 

Mrs. Calkins. I should think not. 

Helen. But he's promised to carry my suit case over 
to the car, so we'll have to leave you. You just make 
yourself at home and wait until Mother comes back. I 
think she'll be back soon. 

Mrs. Calkins. Where are you going? 

Helen. Off for a little vacation. 

Mrs. Calkins. Is school out? 

Helen. It is for me. 

Joseph {picking up the suit case). Good-bye, Mrs. 
Calkins. I wish you good luck with the draft board. 
(Helen and Joseph go out.) 

Mrs. Calkins {spies the note that Helen has left 
for her mother. Picks it up and looks at it curiously. 
Goes to the window and peers out). Now, what are 
they up to? {Comes hack and examines the note again, 
trying to look into it without opening it.) There's some 
m.ystery about it. {Goes again to the window.) He's 
getting on the car with her. There they go together. 
{Comes forward and drops into a chair with an expres- 
sion of disgust on her face.) That's no war wedding. 
He's nothing but a slacker. He confessed it. Think of 
marrying a man not in uniform ! 

ACT III 

Winter o/ 1918. 

Kitchen of the Schweitzer home. At the right is a 
cooking stove and near it a sink and a cupboard. At the left 
is the outside door, and in the rear a door leading to an- 
other room. At the left of the rear door there is a large 
chest of drawers upon which stands a photograph of a 

66 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

young man in uniform. A small American flag set in a vase 
is placed close to the photograph. In the middle of the room 
a table is partly set for supper. Grossmutter Schweit- 
zer in a wheel chair sits at the left of the table knitting 
army socks. At the right Mr. Schweitzer in working 
clothes sits reading a letter. Mrs. Schweitzer is pass- 
ing back and forth setting the table and preparing supper. 

Mr. Schweitzer. Somewhere in France, " always 
somewhere In France. Why can't we never know where 
the boy is? 

Mrs. Schweitzer. Father, haven't you ever learned 
not to ask yet, ''why," when it's war? 

Mr. Schweitzer. I'd ought to. I'd ought to know 
by now that fathers and mothers is nothing. He's not 
ours no more. They've took him off and they've got him 
where they want him and we better make our minds up 
that the front line's not going backwards away from him. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. But he says still he's all right. 

Mr. Schweitzer. It's a plain lie. They make 'em 
say that. They won't let 'em write nothing home but 
that. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. It Is strange his letter — what he 
says about we don't know what they know that's there 
and he can't tell us. What does he mean so. Father? 

Mr. Schweitzer [bitterly). He means it's hell. 
That's what he means. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. He never before wrote so short 
letters to us like this one. Nothing to write, he says. 
Only one side of the paper he fills up. 

Mr. Schweitzer. I know the boy's heart's aching 
to tell us something that he can't. There's something 
happened or — {sigtjificantly) going to happen. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. Oh Helnrich, you frighten all 

67 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

through me. 

Mr. Schweitzer. Look how queer like he writes on 
the page. 

Mrs. Schweitzer {taking the letter). It's crooked the 
lines like he was sick. 

Mr. Schweitzer. Sick! It's worse than sick. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. But he hasn't been to the hospital 
ever yet. 

Mr. Schweitzer. Then it's something coming he 
sees and can't get from it away, like watching the water 
fill the ship when you're tied on it. That's why there's 
nothing for to write. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. Oh God, will he come ever back? 

Mr. Schweitzer. Who cares but us if he comes back 
or not comes back? To them — them that's running things 
— what's any of the soldiers but gun feed? 

Mrs. Schweitzer. Father, you must not so speak. 
You fill always my mind with frightfulness. 

Grossmutter. Was sagt der Junge in seinem Brief? 

Mrs. Schweitzer {going to the stove). Tell her, 
Heinrich. 

Mr. Schweitzer {goes to his mother and shouts in 
her ear) . Nicht viel. Er ist gesund. Er sended seine 
Gruesse Grossmutter. 

Grossmutter. Gott erhalte ihn. {Continues knit- 
ting. ) 

Mr. Schweitzer {walking up and down the room 
nervously). He's been a long time already somewhere 
in France, and still all the time all right. There where the 
guns are working day and night — it don't sound straight. 
Sixty miles from the front he writes since last month, but 
I tell you it's now no sixty miles lays between him from 
no man's land. 

68 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Mrs. Schweitzer. But what good is it studying out 
about where he is? There's nothing for us now left but 
to pray. Only God can see where he is. 

Mr. Schweitzer. I tell you God ain't in this mess. 
It's the devil's own work. God's blinded from the red 
smoke spouting in his eyes or he's lying unconscious some- 
where on the battle field. Anyway, he's clear beat, so 
there's no use bothering him with praying. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. Heinrich, you blaspheme. 
{Speaking quietly as she stirs the supper on the stove.) 
Tomorrow I send him all what he asks for in the letter. 

Mr. Schweitzer. What does he ask for? 

Mrs. Schweitzer. Nothing but cigarettes. 

Mr. Schweitzer. Cigarettes — that's all they any of 
'em wants. Cigarettes to forget their misery. There's 
something out of gear in the world when whole millions 
of men don't want nothing but cigarettes and can't live 
a minute without 'em. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. Also I send him the socks. Gross- 
mutter tomorrow has another pair ready. She knits al- 
ways for him. 

Mr. Schweitzer {excitedly). Likely before he gets 
the socks his legs will be blowed off. 

Mrs. Schweitzer {screams). Father, quit such ter- 
rible words. My mind it will be all gone. 

Mr. Schweitzer. He's up next to a battle. I know 
he is. I know it how his letter sounds. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. No, no, you speak to frighten me. 
You know nothing. Pray, Heinrich, pray. Always we 
must pray. 

Mr. Schweitzer. Curses on them, curses on them ! — 
them that knows what's going on, them that bosses the 
job, them that never sees a battle but sits back where it's 

69 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

safe and clean and says, "Tomorrow we've got to take 
some more miles of enemy trench. It'll cost us about ten 
thousand men," they say like they was figuring bank notes. 
Then they orders men shipped to this place out and to that 
place back like they was material for the job they've con- 
tracted for. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. I don't deny it, but I dassent 
think of it. Nobody can think when it's war. 

Mr. Schweitzer. So long as we've got brains we've 
got to think. You talk like we was dummies, Anna. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. We must so make ourselves. If 
we do not so make ourselves to think always what they 
say, then they destroy us. 

Mr. Schweitzer. It's the interests, I tell you. It's 
the interests makes this war. They've got to make their 
loans safe if it takes all the working people in the coun- 
try. When they get the boys all killed off, then they'll 
draft the old labor stiffs and maybe end up with the girls. 
Wall Street's got to be protected. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. It's all the government's bidding, 
ain't it? 

Mr. Schweitzer. Yes, but the government's sold out 
to the interests, — the interests that's willing to make 
money out of human lives. Curses on them ! 

Mrs. Schweitzer. Heinrich, be still with your 
mouth. You will bring the curses upon us down if you 
so anger yourself. It is all true what you say, maybe, but 
since yesterday you spoke such words at the shipyard I 
have been always fearing for us all. They will get you 
and put you in jail. 

Mr. Schweitzer. What I said at the shipyard? 
That wasn't nothing but what I had a right to say. For- 
get it, Anna. (Sitting down again at the table.) Isn't 

70 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

supper yet ready? 

Mrs. Schweitzer. Soon It Is ready. {Worriedly.) 
Why couldn't you not talk at the shipyard? 

Mr. Schweitzer. I didn't say nothing they could get 
me for. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. Every day now they arrest Ger- 
mans. You cannot speak one word If you are Germans In 
America. 

Mr. Schweitzer. But that one armed soldier mak- 
ing a speech to the shipyard men hadn't no right to call 
the Germans beasts. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. He's got the right to do anything 
I suppose so long as he's with the government. 

Mr. Schweitzer. I only said It was a He what he 
said about the Germans. 

PvIrs. Schweitzer. But you're German and you das- 
sent say anythlng's a He no matter If It's ten lies. They'll 
get you. 

Mr. Schweitzer. If they arrest me for that, well 
this ain't the country I've always took It for. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. Nothing's what we took It for 
before the war. 

Mr. Schweitzer. Why, that fellow was saying such 
things that had to be denied by somebody. He was telling 
about baiting Germans and sticking the bayonets Into their 
fat bellies and hearing them squeal like stuck pigs In the 
slaughter house. He said that no German was better 
than a hog anyhow and baiting 'em was good sport. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. Well, didn't the men like to hear 
what he spoke? 

Mr. Schweitzer. They laughed and clapped like 
they did. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. Then what was your business to 

71 



rin: jazz of iwrRioriSM 

say JlHcrciU? 

Mk. ScwKiTZi r. All I said was that Germans wasn't 
hogs nil nunc than he was calling 'cm that. Nobody heard 
me but the men right close. 

Mrs. ScHWKiTZKR. That's sedition language. I know 
it is. l^'vcrything that doesn't agree with all what they 
say is sedition language. 1 learned that already since a 
long time. 

Mr. ScHWKirzF.R. And he talked about bagging Ger- 
mans with aeroplanes like they was ducks or something. 
1 CiHidn't stand it. 

Mrs. Si uwKirzKR. You've got to stand it. You've 
got to pretend like you like it. What becomes of us it you 
get in jail taken away, me without a husband or a son 
either and Grossmutter old and helpless so? 1 wish you 
hadn't ever got work at the shipyard even if the wages is 
better. You'd ought to have stayed with the street paving 
job, where they don't have war speeches all the time be- 
fore the men. 

Mr. Sruwrnzi-R. It's the same about on all jobs 
now. You'\ e got to listen to war hollering and have your 
wages held back for liberty bonds wherever you work. Be- 
sides they ain't paving streets no more; they're killing 
Huns. Dirt roads is good enough till they get through 
with that. Hut there's plenty oi people paving the inside 
of their pockets out oi the Hun killing just the same. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. You have no care for your 
tongue, Heinrich, and the federal oflicers is everywhere, 
especially at the shipyard. 

Mr. Schweitzer. Well, if they want to take me 
they'll have to take me for it's all said now. But ain't 
you as bad as me when you didn't salute the flag down 
there at that church meeting with a pack of howling wo 



Tin: J A// i)\< IV\ IKlonsM 

llU'fl ? 

Mrs. ScMIwr.n/i.K. Ihat's what Ir.niud nir my les- 
son. Now I do all what duy say. 

Mr. SrnwKiizKR. Well, if I axut say what's (lie 
p ain (ruth aiui iiodimjr more nor nothing less than the 
plain truth it's too had, hut I know everyone's suspieion, 
ing cveryhody else most of the time since the war 

Mrs. S('ii\vi,ii/i.r. Doesn't the j^M)vermnent tell them 
toi^ I laven ( you seen the adds, all aroufid on (he ma^a- 
zmo covers and in the street cars and everywhere Irljinj^r 
cveryhody (o look out for (h(< people next to them ami 
report them il (hey jre(s a ehaiuv? I've seen wonien 
lookmg at each odier kni(ting (o^edier in (he park like 
they wished (hey could catch each odier somehow, luery- 
body's supposed (o think cveryhody else is a (ierman spy 
Mr. ScMWi.irzi.R. The women— they've ^nnc nuts 
Mrs. Sciiwkitzi.k. They're each one fij^hlin^r |or 
their own son, dial's all. Isn'l a woman's own' IKsh and 
hlood (he lirsi lhm|^ all (he (ime wha( she (hinks about? 

Mr. S('iiwin/i,R. Why don'l ihey (hink some of the 
time ahout wha('s behind all (his murdering? 

Mrs. Sciiwi'irzi.R. lUrause (hey don't care. They 
want to sec their own hoy again. That's all what they 
care ahoiii. ^ 

Mr. Sciiwkhzkr. Then ihey'd he((er pray like you 
said a while ago. 

Mrs. Scmiwmizi r. They do pray. They pray and 
pray and pray, hu( when (he praying's over (he war's still 
going on and (here's nothing with any mother hut (he 
craving (ha( she wants her hoy hack and she don't care 
whos killed so long as it isn'( him. And when it comes 
m her muul what danger he's in, something swells up in 
her and she says all secret lo herself that if it's killing 

73 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

others will bring her boy back, why kill them, kill all of 
them and send every other mother's boy in the country 
over to get killed in place of hers, and who wins the war 
or loses it doesn't make no matter so long as her boy's 
brought back to her all right. 

Mr. Schweitzer. I suppose that's why the women 
are the last ones that wants the war to come but the 
strongest for fighting it after it's come. If the women 
ain't so fierce as the men by nature you'd think they was 
when there's a war on. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. They carried their own in their 
wombs and they didn't carry none but their own. 

Mr. Schweitzer. I guess you're right. It's their 
own they're praying for every time. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. And their own they're secretly 
thinking about when they say country. If they've got 
nobody of their own to fear for they don't have the samxC 
look in their eyes nor the same sound in their voices when 
they talk about patriotism. 

Mr. Schweitzer. That kind talks patriotism be- 
cause it's the style, ain't it, like high heels or anything? 

Mrs. Schweitzer. Yes, but do the men always talk 
so truly about loving their country? 

Mr. Schweitzer. It's business with the men. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. Then it seems like patriotism's 
a cheat all through. 

Mr. Schweitzer. Maybe when a m.an lives always 
in the same place where he was born and doesn't know 
nothing about any other country, he's straight in his 
patriotism, but then they don't know how small is one 
country in the whole world. The man that's sure got 
the love of his fellowmen in his heart ain't stopping with 
his own country. 

74 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Mrs. Schweitzer. I know it's not so that a woman 
loves her country more than her own son. If she does 
she is strange to Nature. If she loves her son so great 
that she feels sympathy that other mothers also love 
their sons the same and suffer the same as her, then she is 
not strange to Nature, but also then patriotism is too 
small. 

Mr. Schweitzer. So great sympathy is of the future 
time, far away from today. Today is only to hate what 
is not of the same race or language or color. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. Yes, so fearful is patriotism. But 
come eat supper now. 

{She puts the supper on the table and arranges Gross- 
MUTTER^S chair before the table. All are seated and begin 
supper. ) 

Mr. Schweitzer. It's a long day to go back to ten 
hours again. A man comes home too tired to be hungry. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. You said the men wasn't going 
to accept to change again from eight hours. Why did 
they? 

Mr. Schweitzer. Because men's nothing but sheep 
any way. That's why. Whether it's to work or to kill 
they'll do what they're told to. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. Listen, somebody comes up the 
steps. 

Mr. Schweitzer. Don't be so scared at every little 
sound you hear, Anna. What if there does? 

Mrs. Schweitzer. Oh,- it so frightens me. {Foot- 
steps and voices are heard outside — then a heavy knock.) 
Go see who comes. Father. 

(Mr. Schweitzer opens the door. Two police of- 
ficers — Sergeant Murry and Officer Green — enter.) 

Sergeant Murry {gruffly). Does Henry Schweitzer 

75 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

live here? 

Mr. Schweitzer. I am Henry Schweitzer. 

Sergeant Murry {showing him a legal paper). I 
have a warrant here for the arrest of Henry Schweitzer. 

Mr. Schweitzer. What for? please to tell me. 

Sergeant Murry. On a charge of disturbing the 
peace. {Takes him by the arm.) You are under arrest. 

Mrs. Schweitzer {running to him in fear). Oh, 
Helnrlch, Helnrlch! 

Sergeant Murry {exhibiting another paper). Here's 
a search warrant, too, and we're going to make a clean 
job of this Hun joint, you bet yer life. ( To Officer 
Green). Go to it, Harry. (Officer Green goes to 
the chest of drawers and begins to look through it.) 

Mrs. Schweitzer. Oh, don't take him away. What 
has he done wrong? He Is a good man. See, he has an 
old mother here what he takes care of. 

Mr. Schweitzer. I haven't done nothing that the 
law can touch me for. 

Sergeant Murry. You dam.ned Hun, you, you've 
been talking sedition and you know it just as Vv^ell as me. 
You've been disloyal to the country that nourishes and 
pertects you and you'll eat your big brags before we get 
through with you or I ain't sergeant of the war squad. 

Mr. Schweitzer. When was I talking sedition? I 
deny it. 

Sergeant Murray. You know when you done it, 
you dirty liar, you. I guess you didn't know who was 
standing two feet from you when you shot your face off 
about Lieutenant Adams at the shipyard yesterday, did 
you? 

Mrs. Schweitzer. But he didn't say anything what 
was wrong. 

76 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Sergeant Mujiry. What do you know about it. 
You didn't hear him, did you ? 

Mrs. Schweitzer. No, but all about it he told me; 
every word what he said, he told me. We are loyal. Our 
son fights for this country in France — at the front since 
a long time already. 

Sergeant Murry. So his father's stabbing him in 
the back, eh ? 

Mrs. Schweitzer. What you mean? 

Sergeant Murry. Ain't it stabbing his own son in 
the back to talk against the country his son's fighting for? 
If he wants to kill his own son let him do it, but he ain't 
going to be allowed to kill none of our American boys; 
not while I'm sergeant of the war squad. We'll put him 
where he belongs. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. Nothing what he said was against 
this country. He told me. We are Americans, both of 
us. He is a naturalized citizen since many years. I bring 
you his papers. {Starts to go to the next room.) 

Sergeant Murry {shouting to her in an ugly voice). 
None of that stuflf. Come back here. We'll do the find- 
ing things our own selves, before you get a chance to 
chuck 'em. What are you trying to pull off? 

Mrs. Schweitzer {coming back) . We are loyal. I 
swear to God we are loyal, both of us. 

Sergeant Murry. Then why don't he show respect 
when a man's speaking that's lost his arm in defense of 
liberty and democracy? 

Mr. Schweitzer. I said only it wasn't right to call 
the Germans always beasts and names like that. 

Sergeant Murry. Ain't right to call 'em beasts — 
the dirty dogs that shot his arm off for him ? Suppose you 
think they're angels. 

77 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Mr. Schweitzer. I said only they was men like any- 
body else. I had a right to say so. 

Sergeant Murry. Well, no red-blooded American's 
going to stand for that. Maybe you'll learn what Amer- 
icanism is when you've been in one of our free hotels for 
a while. Ha, ha! 

Mrs. Schweitzer. How long will they put him in 
jail? 

Sergeant Murry. I ain't the judge. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. We can prove we are loyal. See 
our son's picture in his war uniform. (Points to the pic- 
ture,) Wait a minute I get his letter. Here. (Picks up 
her son's letter and takes it to him.) Look at this — a 
letter from our son, just today comes. 

Sergeant Murry. Tell that to the jury. I ain't the 
jury. I'm arresting him for disturbing the peace. That's 
what my business is. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. But there is not now any more 
peace. How can he disturb peace when it is all war? 

Mr. Schweitzer. Anna, you talk too much. You 
make it worse. ( To Sergeant Murry) . Can't I give 
bail money? 

Sergeant Murry. Not before you're booked at the 
police station, I reckon. I ain't the police station nor the 
court neither. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. Oh, please, sir, if you take him 
away, let him get first cleaned up. See, he has yet his 
old work clothes on. He comes tired from work home. 

Sergeant Murry. Never mind his clothes. He 
don't need to be dressed up where he's going. But we 
ain't going to take him away until we get your house 
cleaned up for you. (To Officer Green). How are 
you coming, Harry? 

78 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Officer Green. Nothing here that looks like evi- 
dence, but I guess you'd better rub your fingers over some 
of these things to be satisfied. 

Sergeant Murry. Yes, I see where I'll have to get 
busy if we don't want to stay here all night. ( To Mr. 
Schweitzer). Here, old man, here's something that 
'11 hold you for a while. {Snaps a pair of handcuffs on 
Mr. Schweitzer'^ wrists.) 

Mrs. Schweitzer. Oh, don't, please sir. He won't 
run away. 

Sergeant Murry. Guess not with them bracelets on. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. Let him change his clothes and 
get washed up, please. 

Sergeant Murry. Mind your business; I'm mind- 
ing mine. 

Mrs. Schweitzer (/>/^^^f;/^/y). He's not a criminal. 
He's a good man. He never meant to displease Ameri- 
cans when he spoke about Germans. 

Mr. Schweitzer. Anna, Anna, say nothing more. 
I'll go with the officer. 

Sergeant Murry. You bet you'll go. Sit down 
there (pointing to a chair) ^ and shut up. {To Officer 
Green.) Anybody'd know you're as green as your name 
at the house cleaning business. Watch me. {Begins to 
look through the drawers.) 

Officer Green. I tell you there ain't a thing there 
we can touch. 

Sergeant Murry. I'm not taking no chances. This 
is the only sure way. ( Throws everything out upon the 
floor — clean linen, papers, wearing apparel, etc.) I guess 
you're right. Nothing but rubbish here. {Gives the pile 
a few broad kicks.) Try that there cupboard. 

Officer Green {opening cupboard). What's the 

79 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

good in wasting time over a lot of dishes ? 

Sergeant Murry. Can't they hide things under 
dishes? Look between 'em all and take 'em all out and 
look behind 'em. (Officer Green begins to look over 
dishes, piling them carefully on the floor.) You act like you 
was afraid of breakin' 'em. Ha, ha! If I was as slow 
as you, I'd quit my job and go to raising potatoes. Get 
a move on you. I can't wait a year. You finish that place 
up clean now, while I dig out these holes. ( Opens tip cup- 
hoards and drawers around the sink, throwing out pots 
and kettles, knives and forks, soap, flat irons, etc., with a 
great rattle and hang.) What you got there? 

Officer Green {looking over a pile of newspapers 
which he has found in the cuphoard). Nothing but old 
newspapers, so far as I can see. 

Sergeant Murry {authoritatively). Bring them to 
me. (Officer Green oheys.) What language do you 
call that. It ain't yours, is it? 

Officer Green. What if it is German? Where's 
it any evidence? 

Sergeant Murry. You're too soft for crook catch- 
ing, you poor fish. {Shakes out all the papers and scat- 
ters them ahout the floor.) 

Grossmutter {who has heen looking on in astonish- 
ment, calls out to her son). Heinrich, vas geht dort, vor? 

Mr. Schweitzer {goes to her and shouts in her ear). 
Es ist die Polizel. Sie durchsucht unser Haus. 

Grossmutter. Aber warum? 

Mr. Schweitzer. Wir sind Deutsche. Es ist Krieg. 
Sei ruhig. 

Sergeant Murry {shouting angrily) . That's enough 
now of your dirty Hun talk. 

Mr. Schweitzer. My mother speaks only German. 

80 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Sergeant Murry. Well, she'd better cut It out or 
I'll tell her in plain American to keep still and I guess 
she'll understand. 

Mr. Schweitzer. I told her already In German. 

Sergeant Murry. You better shut up, too, and sit 
down where I told you to, or you'll wish you had. ( To 
Officer Green.) Try the next room. 

Mrs. Schweitzer (Picks up her son's letter and again 
offers it to Sergeant Murry, with desperate pleading). 
Oh, please sir, look at this. Read It. Then you know 
how our son fights for America. My husband he helps 
to build the ships for America and we buy always Liberty 
Bonds and Red Cross. I will show you. Grossmutter, 
too, all the time she knits for the soldiers. I beg please 
that you read it. {Holds out the letter imploringly.) 
Maybe he is since he wrote killed. We know nothing, but 
he is to the front trenches, we know. 

Sergeant Murry {takes the letter and looks at it 
carelessly) . I don't want your damned letters. ( Crumples 
it and throws it on the floor.) I don't care if you've got 
a dozen sons In the war, you're traitors just the same, both 
of you. The Department of Justice knows you all right. 
You're the woman that insulted the flag down there at 
the church with that anarchist Holden woman. We've got 
the record of it. You'd ought to be jugged yourself along 
with your old man. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. I did not know It was Insulting 
to the flag. I would stand up but I thought it was of 
no harm to remain In stillness. I will do anything what 
the government says. Please sir, oflficer, do not take m.y 
husband away from his family what so needs him. He is 
a good man. You will know he Is a good man. 

Mr. Schweitzer. Anna, say no more. It Is of no 

81 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

use. 

(Sergeant Murry continues his search; looks behind 
all the pictures, and peers into every receptacle, throwing 
to the floor everything available except the son's picture 
in uniform and the flag in the vase. Even the contents of 
the pantry shelf are hurled into the debris — boxes of salt 
and pepper, bags of beans and rice, potatoes, bread, salt 
pork, coffee, tea, sugar, etc., till the room is in utter con- 
fusion.) 

Officer Green {coming in from the other room 
carrying a small box of polished wood). Here's the 
goods all right. 

Sergeant Murry (gruffly). Let me see. (Opens 
the box and takes out a small German flag, old and torn, 
which he lays down on the table as he looks deeper into 
the box.) 

Officer Green (picking up the flag and holding it 
before Sergeant Murry). Well, don't that tickle your 
glims ? 

Sergeant Murry. What is it? (Takes it in his 
hands and looks at it indifferently.) 

Officer Green. So the sergeant of the war squad 
don't know when he's holding a German flag in his hands. 
That's one on you, ha, ha, ha ! 

Sergeant Murry. Well, you don't see 'em floating 
around these parts very often, you bet yer life. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. That's Grossmutter's box. It's 
her old keepstakes since fifty years in the old country. \Ye 
didn't know what was in the box. Do not blame us that 
a German flag was in our house when we didn't know it. 
I swear before God my husband nor I didn't know it was 
there, and Grossmutter she is too old to blame her. 

Sergeant Murry (throzvs the box to the floor with a 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

bangy scattering its contents of old jewelry, laces, pictures, 
etc.). You'll know it pretty soon. {To Mr. Schweit- 
zer in sudden anger.) Come here, you Hun dog! (Mr. 
Schweitzer goes toward him slowly. Sergeant Murry 
rushes at him and jerks him forward violently.) You 
stinking cur ! Here, take this damned rag and blow your 
nose on it. {Rams the flag into his hands.) 

Mr. Schweitzer. It is not my flag. It is an old 
relic only which my mother puts away. I wish not to 
harm my mother's things that she from the past treasures. 

Sergeant Murry {bellowing) . I tell you, blow your 
nose on it! 

Mrs. Schweitzer. Oh, ofl^cer, look. We are Amer- 
icans. See, this is our flag. {Runs to the chest of drawers 
and takes the flag from the vase. Rushes back to Sergeant 
Murry waving the flag above her head.) I stand under 
protection from this flag what our son fights for. 

Sergeant Murry {grabs the flag violently from her 
hands). You damn German! You ain't fit to touch the 
Stars and Stripes. This is my flag. 

Mrs. Schweitzer. Have you a son what fights in 
France for this flag as does our son? 

Sergeant Murry. No more of your bullcon. {Folds 
the American flag and puts it in his pocket. Takes Mr. 
Schweitzer's handcuffed hands, which still hold the Ger- 
man flag, and roars). Pick up your hands here and blow 
your nose on your damned Hun flag or I'll knock your 
block off. 

Mrs. Schweitzer {in terror). Do it, Heinrich. To 
us it is nothing. 

Mr. Schweitzer. But Mother, it is yet her country 
— the fatherland. I cannot so hurt her to let her see me 
do so. 

83 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Mrs. Schweitzer. I'll do it, officer. Let me have 
it, Heinrich. (Reaches for the flag.) 

Sergeant Murry. Get out of here. I told him to 
do it. {To Mr. Schweitzer). Hurry up, there. (Mr. 
Schweitzer makes no move.) 

Mrs. Schweitzer {pleadingly). Do it, Heinrich. 
(Mr. Schweitzer still stands motionless.) 

Sergeant Murry. Are you paralyzed? {Grabs Mr. 
Schweitzer's hands more violently and presses them 
against his nose, shouting in unbridled anger.) You 
scoundrel, you yellow dog, you Hun bastard ! I'll show you 
what an American is. Blow, I tell you ; blow your rotten 
brains out, you God-damn son-of-a-bitch, you! {Pushes 
Mr. Schweitzer's head back and bangs the handcuffs 
against his face till he groans with pain.) 

Mrs. Schweitzer {screaming) . Oh Heinrich, Hein- 
rich! (Grossmutter utters a cry and faints in her chair. 
Mrs. Schweitzer rushes to her.) They kill her! They 
kill her! 

Sergeant Murry {lets go of Mr. Schweitzer's 
hands and the German flag falls to the floor. Calls to 
Officer Green). Come on, Harry. Let's go. 

Officer Green {who has gone to Grossmutter and 
with Mrs. Schweitzer is trying to revive her) . Can 
you lay her back more? She ought to be out flat. {They 
put down the back of the wheel chair and work over her, 
fanning her and rubbing her hands.) She'll be all right 
in a minute. Now she's coming out, I think. 

Sergeant Murry {picks up the German flag gingerly 
and holds it at arms length). Guess I'd better wrap up 
this snot rag and take it along for evidence. Give me a 
piece of paper, Harry. 

Officer Green. Ain't there enough on the floor to 

84 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

find one yourself? Fm busy. 

Sergeant Murry {takes a paper from a debris, 
wraps up the German flag and puts it in his pocket.) That 
ought to convict 'em sure. 

Grossmutter {moaning and trying to rise in her 
chair) . Heinrich. 

Sergeant Murry {takes Mr. Schweitzer by the 
arm and starts to the door. Calls to Officer Green). 
Come on, Harry. It's time to beat it. 

Officer Green {starts to follow). I'll say it's time 
to beat it. {Muttering) . We've done enough dirt for 
one night. 

Mrs. Schweitzer {as Grossmutter again moans and 
trys to speak). Sei ruhig, Grossmutter. Sle gehen schon. 
Ruhig, ruhig. {Goes to Sergeant Murry.) Please of- 
ficer, let me get his coat. It's cold to go from the house 
out with no coat. His hat, too; please, sir, let me get 
them. 

Sergeant Murry. Bring 'em to the jail tomorrow. 
I can't wait a year. ( To Officer Green who has gone 
to Grossmutter and is fanning her) . Come along, 
Harry. No more kiddin' with the women. ( To Mr. 
Schweitzer). Step lively, there, God damn you! {They 
go out.) 

Grossmutter {raising her head and speaking with dif- 
ficulty) . Wohin geht Heinrich wohin? 

Mrs. Schweitzer {falls to the floor by Grossmut- 
TER^s chair sobbing convulsively) . Ins Gefaengnis. Es 
ist unrecht. Es ist unrecht. 

ACT IV. 

Fall 0/1918. 

Mrs. Holden's living room turned into a small dress- 
making establishment. Helen is in the center of the 

85 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

r 00771 fitting an evening dress on Mrs. Calkins. Mrs. 
McCoNNELL is sitting before a sewing machine on the 
left basting a garment to be stitched, while Mrs. Holden 
is busy at an ironing board at the right. 

Mrs. Calkins. You know it's almost getting serious 
the way I'm talked about for coming to this house. 

Mrs. Holden. How could anybody talk about you, 
child? 

Mrs. Calkins. They do. There are people who 
actually doubt my loyalty — think of it ! — me, almost a 
war widow. 

Mrs. Holden. I wish nobody was any nearer to 
war widowhood than you are, Katherine. 

Mrs. Calkins. But my husband's in France. Isn't 
that near enough? 

Mrs. Holden. Quite near enough. However, the 
base hospitals aren't on the firing line. 

Mrs. Calkins {looking in the glass). I wonder how 
I'd look in black. 

Mrs. McConnell. Don't talk about black. 

Mrs. Calkins. Yes, I know you don't believe in 
letting people know your grief, Mrs. McConnell, and of 
course it's very brave in you, but I think we ought to show 
some outward respect for our dead for the first year, any- 
way. 

Mrs. McConnell. Our grief is our own, isn't it? 

Mrs. Calkins. It's the nation's grief, too. The 
whole country mourns for every soldier killed in defense 
of the colors. 

Mrs. McConnell. It pays its formal tribute to the 
dead. 

Helen. As the grand finale of the war carnival. 

Mrs. Calkins. Oh, all of you say such dreadful 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

things. That's what makes it dangerous for me to be 
seen coming here. I'm risking my reputation. 

Helen. Nonsense! You're not only treason-proof, 
but you're trying all the time to reform us. If they slan- 
der you any more tell them that you come here as a mis- 
sionary. 

Mrs. Calkins. That's a good idea. I have tried 
to bring you to a better understanding of the war, 
haven't I? 

• Mrs. Holden. You've done your best. It's not your 
fault that we're still unreclaimed heretics. 

Mrs. Calkins. And I've reasoned it all out how I'm 
fulfilling a real war-time duty in coming here. 

Helen. If you've reasoned anything out, Katherine, 
do enlighten us. 

Mrs. Calkins. Well, it's this way. Mrs. Holden, 
you practically saved Dick's life. Father would have 
let him be drafted to the trenches or anything, but you 
told me what to do to save him, and I did it, and I do 
feel grateful to you, for now he's doing the noblest ser- 
vice that a man can do — relieving human suffering. 

Helen. Holding the knives and the bandages while 
the doctors patch up men to go back to the front. 

Mrs. Calkins. And I know he's not shirking no 
matter how hard it is. 

Helen. Probably not or he'd be disciplined. They 
make even the doctors sweat. 

Mrs. Calkins. Isn't it magnificent the way nearly 
all of the doctors have volunteered? 

Helen. Where else could they find such a feast of 
scientific experiment? It's even better than a vivisection 
laboratory. But what's all this got to do with your ful- 
filling a war-time duty in coming here? 

87 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Mrs. Calkins. Oh, yes, I forgot what I was going 
to say. Well, in having you for my dressmaker during 
the war, I'm Hooverising. 

Helen. Good! So you are. 

Mrs. Calkins. Besides, your gowns are really quite 
chic, Helen. 

Helen. Thank you, and if you'll please hold up your 
arm for a few minutes, I'll try to live up to the compli- 
ment. 

Mrs. Calkins. Now you've got it too tight. 

Helen. (Adjusts a pin or two.) How's that? 

Mrs. Calkins. Yes, it feels better now. [Looks 
it over carefully in the glass.) Helen, if you get that 
skirt too long, you'll just have to cut it off. Mrs. Briggs 
says the skirts are getting shorter all the time in Paris. 

Helen. Perhaps cloth is getting scarcer. I'll Hoover- 
ise it a little more if you say so. The scraps might be 
salvaged by the Red Cross. 

Mrs. Holden. Is that the message Mrs. Briggs 
brought back from the war zone? 

Mrs. Calkins. Of course that wasn't all she said. 
She talked most inspiringly about her work among the 
soldiers. You don't seem to care anything at all about 
the welfare of the soldiers. 

Mrs. Holden. There's a difference of opinion as to 
what constitutes the welfare of the soldiers. 

Mrs. Calkins. She fairly made me want to go over. 
She's had such a wonderful time over there. 

Helen. Haven't you had a wonderful time over 
here? You'd better stick to this side of the pond where 
your rations of ice cream and candy aren't limited in spite 
of the regulations on sugar. Don't risk having your 
appetite taken away by the smell of rotting corpses. 

88 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Mrs. Calkins. Helen, you seem to like to talk about 
those gruesome things. If you were like me you'd dwell 
only on the ideal side of the war. 

Helen. I'm not an idealist. 

Mrs. Calkins {looking again in the glass). Isn't it 
wonderful how I'm economising on this gown? With 
the new crepe-de-Chine you'd never know that I wore the 
underslip all last season, would you? 

Mrs. Holden. I hope you're making good use of 
the money you're saving on clothes this year. 

Mrs. Calkins. Indeed I am. I'm learning the 
pleasure of giving. 

Helen. An extreme pleasure that's being quite gen- 
erally enforced these days. 

Mrs. Calkins. Aren't you through yet with this in- 
terminable fitting? 

Helen. Well, take it off. I guess I can finish it all 
right now. (Helen unfastens the gown.) 

Mrs. Calkins. You've kept me standing a long 
time today. I'm tired 

Helen. I can sympathise with you. (Mrs. Cai. 
KINS goes to the next room, leaving the door open. Helen 
sits down exhaustedly.) 

Mrs. Holden {singing softly as Mrs. McConnell's 
sewing machine hums) : 

*'Jesus, I my cross have taken, 
All to leave and follow thee." 

Helen. Mother, if you don't stop your hymn-sing- 
ing, you'll drive me to — well, to doing what the church 
ladies did to you. 

Mrs. Holden. Excuse me, dear. I know you don't 
like it. I forgot. 

Helen. It makes me chafe. I don't believe in tak- 

89 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

ing up the cross. I rebel at your meek, pacifist philosophy. 

Mrs. McConnell. Her meek, pacifist philosophy 
seems to be the only thing left intact above the insensate 
maelstrom of the world today. Hasn't she stuck to her 
moorings with a tenacity that is boldness in itself? She 
at least has kept the faith and made her point from first 
to last. 

Helen. Made her point by getting you into prison 
for ten years. 

Mrs. McConnell. No, she got me out on bail. 

Helen. She led you to the danger zone of pacifism 
and now you've been struck down while she remains stand- 
ing — for a while at least. 

Mrs. Holden. Yes, that's what hurts me. Why 
didn't they arrest me instead of you ? 

Mrs. McConnell. Because I moved with the im- 
petus of a convert and inevitably got my head into the 
noose. 

Mrs. Calkins [calling out from the next room). Oh, 
Mrs. McConnell, they aren't going to hang you, are they? 

Mrs. McConnell. No, not yet. 

Mrs. Calkins. How you did frighten mt. They 
won't put you in a regular prison, will they, with mur- 
derers and everybody? 

Mrs. McConnell. They will. 

Mrs. Calkins. When? 

Mrs. McConnell. Very soon. 

Mrs. Calkins. I didn't know it was so bad as that. 

Helen. So bad as what? What do you think she's 
done ? 

Mrs. Calkins. I don't quite know, only it's some- 
thing against the government. 

Mrs. McConnell. Not against the government, but 

90 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

regardless of the government. 

Mrs. Calkins. Yes, they do talk about you're being 
an anarchist and trying to overthrow the government like 
your son Joseph. Helen, will you please come here. 
You'll simply have to help me get this dress off. (Helen 
goes out.) 

Mrs. Holden {having finished her ironing, hangs it 
over the back of a chair and goes near to Mrs. McCon- 
NELl). Why don't you rest a little, since you've only a 
few short hours left? 

Mrs. McConnell. I'd rather be busy up to the last 
minute. It keeps my mind under control. 

Mrs. Holden. Have you got everything ready to go? 

Mrs. McConnell. Yes, I've been ready for three 
days. I expected it. 

Mrs. Holden. Why didn't you tell us before? 

Mrs. McConnell. I told you as soon as the mes- 
sage actually came. 

Mrs. Holden. I can't m.ake up my mind to it. I 
didn't think you would really have to serve your sentence. 

Mrs. McConnell. I did. A case on appeal isn't 
judged on its merits you know, only on technicalities. Be- 
sides, the courts, like everything else now, are ruled by 
war-passion. They did well to give me a few hours' no- 
tice before taking me away. 

Mrs. Holden. You accept your fate magnificently. 

Mrs. McConnell. No, it's only that I'm free from 
doubt. Even going to prison is easier than being in the 
mental anguish that I was in before, trying to reconcile 
humanitarian ideals with bloodshed. 

( The door bell rings. Mrs. Holden goes to the door. 
A Liberty Bond Solicitor enters. He wears on the 
lapel of his coat a conspicuous celluloid bow of red, white 

91 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

and blue, marked ^'volunteer".) 

Solicitor {taking a pencil and paper from his pocket), 
I'm taking subscriptions for the fourth Liberty Loan. 

Mrs. Holden. I do not care to subscribe. 

Solicitor. I am the captain of this district. 

Mrs. Holden. So I supposed. The last solicitor 
told me he would send the captain, but it's quite unneces- 
sary for you to come. 

Solicitor. Then you've already bought a Liberty 
Bond? 

Mrs. Holden. No. I don't buy war bonds. 

Solicitor {looking at her threateningly). Madam, 
we have ways of making people buy bonds. 

Mrs. Holden {answering his look calmly). My re- 
fusal is final. (Solicitor continues to stare at her.) Why 
do you wait? 

Solicitor. Your refusal is final. We'll see about 
that. {JVrites something on the paper.) Do you realize 
that if you continue to refuse to do your duty as a citizen 
of this free republic that your name will be published in 
the newspapers as a Liberty Bond slacker? 

Mrs. Holden. My name has already been published 
several times. I'm getting quite used to it. 

Solicitor. Then you have no respect for public opin- 
ion? Be careful, the public is in no mood to deal gently 
with such as you. There are mobs abroad. 

Mrs. Holden. I know it. I've seen something of 
them. Do you approve of mob rule? 

Solicitor. No, but one can't blame the outraged pub- 
lic sometimes for taking the law into its own hands when 
the regularly constituted officials are slow. 

Mrs. Holden. Would you condone a mob bent on 
revolution ? 

92 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Solicitor. That's an entirely different thing. Law 
and order must be maintained. We have the militia to 
attend to that. 

Mrs. Holden. What is law and order? 

Solicitor. I'm not here to answer fool questions. I 
mean business. Come on. You have the protection of 
the army and navy, and if you can't back them up with 
your pocket book you're a pretty poor American. 

Mrs. Holden. I don't ask the protection of the 
army and navy. 

Solicitor. No more joking. This is serious business. 

Mrs. Holden. I'm not joking. I've given you my 
answer. Do you want it again? 

Solicitor. Come on. W^hat will you have ? — a hun- 
dred dollar bond to begin with? 

Mrs. Holden. I do not buy war bonds. I'm a Paci- 
fist. 

Solicitor. A Pacifist, eh? Rather late in the day to 
be a Pacifist. I wonder how long you'd be a Pacifist if 
the Germans should land in New York. 

Mrs. Holden. I'm not expecting them. 

Solicitor. Neither am I, by golly! We've got 'em 
on the run now, and the next thing it's on to Berlin. 

Mrs. Holden. You'll join the invading host, I sup- 
pose. 

Solicitor {ignoring her remarks and speaking impera- 
tively) . For the third time I offer you a bond of the 
fourth Liberty Loan. 

Mrs. Holden. And for the third time I refuse. 

Solicitor. Madam, be careful; you are treading on 
dangerous ground. 

Mrs. Holden. I have stated my position. 

Solicitor {begins to speak in a wheedling tone). Now 

d3 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

look here, little woman, I don't want to see you get into 
trouble. I know you're a widow and not rich, but you 
can afford one bond at least. If you haven't got the cash 
in hand you can get credit. {Pauses for Mrs. Holden to 
answer. As she remains silent he continues in a still more 
wheedling tone). Now come along and do your duty like 
a good patriot and you won't find tt.q a hard man. No, 
not at all. Let me persuade you as a friend. I like you, 
Mrs. Holden — I believe that's your name; I have it down 
somewhere here. {Looks over his note hook.) Yes, Mrs. 
Holden. You're a nice little v/oman, but don't tell m.y 
wife I said so, ha, ha ! There now, come through sweetly 
and there won't be any trouble at all. 

Mrs. Holden. You are Vvasting your words. I do 
not compromiise my principles. 

Solicitor {angrily). Look here, you say you're a 
Pacifist, but I'll just tell you that there's no such animal 
left in this country. Either you're a loyal, clean, 100% 
American, or you're a sneaking traitor. {Bangs his fist 
on the table.) Which are you? 

Mrs. Holden {quietly). I am neither. 

Solicitor. You — 

Mrs. McConnell {stepping up to him). Mrs. Hol- 
den has told you that she does not buy war bonds and I 
can assure you that she's a woman of her word. 

Solicitor {still angry). Another county heard from. 
Who are you, I'd like to know? 

Mrs. McConnell. I'm Mrs. Holden's friend. 

Solicitor. Do you live here? 

Mrs. McConnell. At present. 

Solicitor. Have you subscribed for a Liberty Bond? 

Mrs. McConnell. No. 

Solicitor {taking out his pencil and pad again) . Your 

94 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

name, please. 

Mrs. McConnell. I, also, do not subscribe for war 
bonds. 

Solicitor. Are you a Pacifist, too? 

Mrs. McConnell. I'm a non-resistant revolutionist. 

Solicitor. A what? 

Mrs. McConnell. A non-resistant revolutionist. 

Solicitor. Well, that's a new one on me. But If 
you're a revolutionist of any color, I guess It's red. {With 
a puzzled look) . You must be a case for the police. 

Mrs. McConnell. Yes, I am. 

Solicitor. Your name, please. 

Mrs. McConnell. Elizabeth McConnell. (He 
writes it down.) 

Solicitor {pompously) . I shall report you at once to 
the Department of Justice. 

Mrs. McConnell. You're too late. I've already 
been convicted. 

Solicitor. What do you mean? 

Mrs. McConnell. Vvhat I say. (Helen e7iters 
unnoticed.) 

Solicitor. You both seem to think I'm here for a 
show, but I'll show you that war's a grim business. ( Takes 
out his watch.) I'll give you just two m.ore minutes and 
If you don't com.e to the conclusion by that time that the 
law's bigger than you are, I'll report your whole nest here. 

Mrs. PIolden. How long has It been a law that we 
shall subscribe for war bonds? 

Solicitor. Well, If It's not a law It's as good as a 
law, because you've got to do It. It's patriotism and pa- 
triotism's the unwritten law of every nation. 

Mrs. Holden. I will not subscribe for a war bond 
whether the law or the unwritten law or something as 

95 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

good as the law demands it. The war is a crime and I 
refuse to be a party to a crime. 

Solicitor. Woman, you'll pay for your sedition. 
{Puts on his hat and starts to go out.) 

Helen {coming forward). I'll get a bond. 

Solicitor {turns around but does not rernove his hat). 
Are you a resident here ? 

Helen. Yes, I'm Mrs. Holden's daughter. 

Solicitor. Your name, please. 

Helen. Helen Holden McConnell. 

Solicitor {writing it down). McConnell? That's 
this woman's name, isn't it? 

Helen. Yes, I'm her son's wife. 

Solicitor. Oh, she's your mother-in-law? Well, 
where's your husband? 

Helen. Away. 

Solicitor. At the front? 

Helen. Yes. 

Solicitor. I know you're lying, for a bunch like you 
hasn't got anybody in the war. 

Mrs. Holden. Have you? 

Solicitor {proudly). My son's an instructor in avia- 
tion. 

Mrs. McConnell. I had a son killed in the Ar- 
gonne. 

Solicitor. You did? This woman's husband? 

Mrs. McConnell. No, a younger son. 

Solicitor {surprised). You really had a son who 
died an honored martyr for country? 

Mrs. McConnell {sadly). Who died a disillu- 
sioned victim of country. There is no honor to death in 
war. It is a bitter mockery. 

Solicitor. Well, however you look at it, I should 

96 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

think you'd want to do all you can to keep other people's 
sons from getting killed. 

Mrs. McConnell. I do. 

Solicitor. Then buy a Liberty Bond. 

Mrs. McConnell. It's advertised that one bond 
will buy ten trench knives. Aren't they for killing pur- 
poses ? 

Solicitor. For killing Germans to save our boys. 

Mrs. McConnell. Aren't they somebody's boys? 

Solicitor. Not from our look out. {To Helen). 
What will you take, young woman ? You know there's no 
better Investment than Liberty Bonds. 

Mrs. Holden. Oh, Helen, why do you do It? 

Solicitor. No advice from you, please. Your daugh- 
ter's got more common sense than you've got. I can see 
that. She's trying to protect you. 

Mrs. Holden. I want no protection of that kind. 

Helen. I have only fifty dollars. Here It Is. {Hands 
him the money.) 

Solicitor. Can't you do a little better than that for 
your country? 

Helen. No. 

Solicitor {writes receipt and hands it to her), I sup- 
pose you think It doesn't matter since the war's practically 
won, but I tell you that though there's been talk of peace 
lately, we've got to clinch our victory and the people have 
got to come through with the money for It. That's all 
there Is about It. 

Mrs. Holden. God save us from the curse of vic- 
tory. 

Solicitor {taking of his hat and scratching his head 
as he looks curiously at Mrs. McConnell). Say, I've 
just thought of something. Are you that woman that was 

97 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

tried this summer for making a seditious speech at some 
kind of a labor meeting? 

Mrs. McConnell. I am. 

Solicitor. Well, upon my word, I didn't know you 
lived here. I thought you were in jail long ago. 

Mrs. McConnell. I entrain tonight. 

Solicitor. You entrain tonight? You talk like a 
soldier going to war. 

Mrs. McConnell. The war between truth and 
falsehood. 

Solicitor. Well, by God, I hope you get all that's 
coming to you. {Goes out.) 

Mrs. Holden. How many more times will we have 
to go through all this, I wonder. 

Helen. Until we grovel with alacrity. 

Mrs. Holden. Or go to prison like Mrs. McConnell 
and Joseph. 

Mrs. Calkins {coming in from the other room 
dressed for the street). Has he gone? 

Mrs. Holden. Why, where have you been all this 
time, Katherine? 

Mrs. Calkins. Hiding in the kitchen. He's really 
gone, hasn't he? My, but that was a narrow escape for 
m.e. You know he's the captain of our district. I'm one 
of his deputies. Suppose he'd seen me here. I didn't 
dare leave while he was here. I thought he might see me 
going away. And then v/hen he talked so loud I was 
afraid he was going to search the house and I didn't know 
what to do. 

Helen. If he'd found you maybe he would only have 
pressed you into service bullying Mother. 

Mrs. Calkins. No, the deputies don't have to do 
any of that work. If any one refuses us, we just report 

98 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

them to him and then he has to go and make them. 

Helen. He seems to take kindly to his job. 

Mrs. Calkins. He's very patriotic. 

Helen. We noticed that. 

Mrs. Calkins. Well, I think I'll be going home. 
Mrs. McConnell, I want you to know that although I 
realize what an awful thing it is to be convicted of crime 
against the government, I don't think you're a criminal 
at heart. 

Mrs. Holden. She's a prophet — like Socrates, like 
Savonarola, like Christ. 

Mrs. Calkins Oh, Mrs. Holden, how sacrilegious, 

like Christ, and she not even in the church any more. 

Why, she's been condemned by the government. 

Mrs. Holden. So was Christ. 

Mrs. Calkins. But he was our Savior. 

Mrs. Holden. Every martyr for truth and righteous- 
ness is one with him and a savior. 

Mrs. McConnell. Don't call me a martyr. Be 
literal. I'm an ordinary woman sentenced to prison for 
my opinions like many others today. If the future sees 
martyrdom in it after I'm dead, I can't protest, but while 
I'm here I won't stand for it. 

Mrs. Calkins. Now, Helen, don't fail to get my 
dress to me by Thursday afternoon. I must have it for 
the Navy Alliance ball Thursday night. If I don't have 
it I can't go, for I haven't another thing to wear. 

Helen. I shall consider it my patriotic duty to get 
it to you on time. 

Mrs. Calkins. Mrs. McConnell, there's something 
I wanted to tell you in case I don't see you again. They 
kept the star in the service flag for your son Ernest after 
all. 

89 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Mrs. McConnell. Let them do so or not, as they 
please. 

Mrs. Calkins. Everybody respects Ernest In spite 
of your disgrace. Mr. Thorp always reads his name with 
the honor roll of our hero dead. 

Mrs. McConnell. How many names are there on 
what the church so patronlslngly calls Its honor roll? 

Mrs. Calkins. Ernest was the first one killed In 
action, then one of the Smith boys died of wounds and 
the other was reported missing. It was a long time be- 
fore they found out that he was killed in the Argonne, 
too. With that delay and with Ernest's star being held 
up on account of your disloyalty It made us very late in 
getting our service flag put right. You know they took 
Vv'illiam Schweitzer's star off the flag after his father was 
convicted. 

Mrs. McConnell. Then why didn't they take my 
son's star off after I was convicted? 

Mrs. Calkins. His was a gold star. 

Helen. They couldn't spare a gold star. Those are 
the counters, aren't they, Katherine? 

Mrs. Calkins. They're what make the flag so sol- 
emn. 

Helen. How do you feel when you sew on a gold 
star? I would feel like a murderer. 

Mrs. Calkins. It's not our fault that our soldiers 
die. They're murdered by the cowardly enemy. 

Mrs. McConnell. Aren't we responsible if we send 
them to fight ? 

Mrs. Calkins. Our responsibility is to see that their 
deaths are Immortalized in the memory of the people. 

Mrs. McConell. Maybe some day the people will 
realize that death In battle is no different from death in 

100 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

any other mortal catastrophy. A battle is nothing but a 
miserable wreck multiplied to the highest degree. It Is 
the same In kind as the head-on collision of two trains. 
Your gold stars and bronze tablets are pitiable recompense 
for a human life snuffed out by blind force. 

Mrs. Calkins. That Isn't so. It's an honor to die 
for country. Even the drafted soldiers feel It. 

Mrs. McConnell. How do you know how the 
drafted soldiers feel? 

Mrs. Calkins. I guess I know as much as you do 
about It. 

Mrs. McConnell. Yes, we women can only spec- 
ulate about how they feel. I speculated once and I was 
told later that I hit pretty near to the mark. I was sitting 
In the railway station on the day the twenty-one-year-olds 
were drafted, and across the aisle was a group of young 
men reading the papers which contained the numbers of 
the draft. It came to me in a flood of consciousness how 
they felt and how I felt and how the world will feel when 
it wakes up, and I wrote it down in verse on the back of 
an envelope. 

Mrs. Calkins. I heard you wrote a seditious poem 
about the draft. I'd like to hear It just for curiosity. 

Mrs. McConnell. All right, I'll say It to you to 
satisfy your curiosity^ but more to relieve my own feel- 
ings. {She repeats the poem earnestly.) 
Draft Day 

The wheel at Washington turns round today. 

We dare not say we fear; we dare not say 

We long to live. We search the printed lines 

For numbers mystical and real; for signs 

That bear a terror deeper than the roar 

Of countless oceans pounding on the shore. 

101 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Cold figures clamp our beings — mine, yours, his — 

And draw us to the crash of centuries 

With a blind force that vibrates beyond sound, 

While we adore and grovel on the ground. 

Two, seven, five, eight, three — digits can hurl 

A living human soul Into the whirl, 

Naked, young, tender, quivering and warm 

Into the death-dark passion of the storm 

And slime it with foul murder In the name 

Of patriotism, tinsel-mask of shame ! 

We dare not say we fear ; we dare not say 

We long to live. The wheel turns round today. 

Mrs. Calkins {after a pause). Well, If you won't 
see things the way other people do, I suppose it's no use 
trying to make you. I believe that all any of you are 
trying to do is to be different. But your talk just goes in 
one ear and out of the other w^Ith me, for I know that a 
few Pacifists like you don't know so much more than all 
the ministers and writers and professors and that kind of 
people who teach us the purity of patriotism and the dig- 
nity of fighting for our country. 

Mrs. McConnell. If It Is such a noble thing to 
fight for one's country why don't you respect the enemy 
for doing so? Why do you accuse the enemy of com.mit- 
ting murder when you don't admit that we also are mur- 
derers ? 

Mrs. Calkins. Because our side Is right. 

Mrs. McConnell. So says the enemy. 

Mx<s. Calkins. But both sides can't be right. One 
must be wrong, and we know we're not wrong. Germany 
started it and has to be punished. 

Mrs. McConnell. Germany didn't start it alone. 

102 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Preparedness in all countries started it. Static war had 
been collecting in storage vats so long that it finally pro- 
duced a general explosion. 

Mrs. Calkins. You've changed so terribly, Mrs. 
McConnell. I can't understand it. You used to be so 
loyal and patriotic. Yet I do feel sorry for you on 
account of all the trouble you've had through the war. 
But I don't feel half so sorry for you as I do for Mrs. 
Schweitzer. Even if she is German she's tried to do 
what's right since she saw her mistake in not saluting the 
flag. You know her son was reported dead once and then 
It turned out that he was In the hospital with shell shock. 
After he was supposed to be well they took him back into 
active service, and the latest news Is that he's raving crazy 
somewhere over there. 

Mrs. McConnell. I've seen Mrs. Schweitzer. Her 
grief is worse than mine. William Is hopelessly Insane. 

Mrs. Calkins. Yes, I'm awfully sorry for her. 
Well, I truly must go. {Calling back as she goes out of 
the door.) Now, Helen, don't forget — Thursday. 

Helen. And that's what the marching legions are 
dying for — to make the world safe for Katherine's gabble 
and the Navy Alliance ball. {Bitterly.) It makes me 
laugh. 

Mrs. Holden. Poor Katherine! We must respect 
her good intentions. 

Helen. Especially since we're subsisting on the 
crumbs of her Hooverizing. 

Mrs. Holden. There's a better day coming. We 
must have the faith. 

Mrs. McConnell. And keep our inner lamps burn- 
ing. 

Helen. Mine have gone out. 

103 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Mrs. McConnell. Don't let them. 

Helen. Lamps can't burn without oil. 

Mrs. McConnell. Helen, you are dooming your- 
self to darkness. 

Helen. What control have I over my life? Aren't 
we all helpless creatures of circumstance? 

Mrs. McConnell. We have a choice of spiritual 
motives if nothing else. 

Helen. But, even so, if we happen to be living in this 
day and age, we are marked by fate either for quick 
annihilation or slow, torturing death. That's the actual- 
ity of war. 

Mrs. Holden. War itself is a choice. 

Helen. But to choose against it is utter destruction 
when the rest of the world has chosen for it. 

Mrs. McConnell. Not to the moral consciousness. 

Helen. Suppose one has no moral consciousness. 
Suppose one is conscious of nothing but blank duration of 
time, varied only by flashes of acute suffering. That's my 
state of mind, and all because the one with whom my 
life is bound up has chosen to deny that he is subject to 
human laws. 

Mrs. Holden. I don't believe that Joseph miakes any 
such denial. He recognizes and follows human laws so 
long as they are just and pure, but when they conflict with 
the higher laws he cannot compromise. The laws of God 
are supreme. 

Helen. And so he must hang by his hands to the 
dungeon doors of Fort Leavenworth. I tell you there are 
no laws of God. There is no God, or such things would 
not be allowed to be. 

Mrs. McConnell. God Is not personality. God is 
Consummate Nature. That is why the laws of God per- 

104 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

mit of evil, pain and death, real and undeniable. 

Mrs. Holden. Do you call it only Consummate Na- 
ture that sustains Joseph through torture in prison? I 
must call it the Lord. 

Mrs. McConnell. What Lord can we trust in more 
securely than Love, the Creative Principle of all Nature? 

Mrs. Holden. If no miraculous event of superna- 
tural origin is to be hoped for — and I admit that since 
the war my old belief in divine intervention has been 
shaken — how is the world to be delivered from the sin 
and suffering of today? 

Mrs. McConnell. By faith made rational. When 
religion ceases to be fanatical and superstitious, then it 
can be put into practice, and the Kingdom of Heaven, 
the new social order which Jesus the radical proclaimed, 
will be the natural result. 

Mrs. Holden. Can humanity achieve it without di- 
vine aid? 

Mrs. McConnell. That depends on what you mean 
by divine aid. The hypothesis of natural science is the 
first requisite. To commune with the Infinite we transcend 
the physical, but we do not do so in violation of natural 
law. Human inspiration cannot be supernatural. 

Mrs. Holden. But what is the Source of human 
inspiration? 

Mrs. McConnell. Life is the Source of human in- 
spiration. The Conscientious Objectors in prison prove 
this. They belong to various schools of religious thought 
and many claim to have no religion at all, but whatever 
their creeds or negations they are all impervious to the 
sophistry of war heroics. This is not from any extraordi- 
nary, divine guidance being given them, but because they 
have the living instinct to see that the moral standards of 

105 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

the time are artificial and unnatural. In other words, 
they are possessed of a rational ideal. Such knowledge 
innate and unwarped in the human soul is the Light of the 
Spirit. 

Helen. Conscientious Objectors aren't human. I 
know they're not. If Joseph were human he would have-' 
followed Dick Calkins to a sheltered place ii^de the war 
machine, from which he could come back to me sound and 
sane. But no, he must throw himself under the wheels of 
the machine and be ground to dust. Oh, it is not right 
for him to follow the Light of the Spirit, as you call it, to 
the inevitable destruction of his body and mind. Even 
the trenches would have been better than where he is, 
locked in darkness and filth, starved and beaten and tor- 
tured. If he has renounced all personal ends in life, I 
haven't. I want my husband. 

Mrs. McConnell. You still have your husband. 

Helen. I want him here beside me. I care for noth- 
ing but to get him out of prison. 

Mrs. Holden. We're doing all we can to obtain his 
release. 

Helen. But nothing can be done, because he won't 
obey any military orders, not even in prison. 

Mrs. Holden. He will come out transfigured. 

Helen {excitedly) . He will come out insane or dead. 
Only last week they sent a dead man home dressed in the 
uniform. In life he had refused to put on the uniform 
and had sat in the dungeon in his underclothes until he got 
pneumonia and died. But in death they had him. His 
body had to submit to their discipline at last. Militarism 
will have its way. What's the use of bucking against the 
force of iron and steel? What is the Conscientious 
Objector's ideal anyway but one single, consuming idea? 

106 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Mrs. Holden. One single, clear vision in a world 
gone blind. 

Helen. A filmy dream. I hate it. I would lie, I 
would steal, I would kill to get my husband out of prison, 
but I can't get him out by any means at all, because he is 
bound hand and foot by his merciless principles. 

Mrs. Holden. Helen, you're distraught. Let's not 
talk of Joseph till you're calmer. 

Helen (wildly). He does not love me. He does 
not love me or he would not have chosen prison instead 
of me. 

Mrs. McConnell. He loves you too much to allow 
you to override his integrity. I've known him longer 
than you have, my dear. (Goes to her and strokes her 
hand gently.) I understand his nature. Don't try to 
change him. You can't do it. (Helen makes no an- 
swer, but bursts into passionate crying.) 

Mrs. Holden. She's desperately tired. She needs a 
rest, but she won't take one. She won't do anything but 
work. 

Mrs. McConnell. Think, Helen, we're all suffer- 
ing. I have a son dead on the battlefields of France. I, 
his mother, in ignorance and stupidity encouraged him to 
follow after a stupendous mirage, and in its horrible 
reality he lost his life. I have another son who is being 
tortured in the dungeon of a military prison — your hus- 
band, dear, but still my son— ^who, in spite of opposition 
from you and me, followed the course of the wiser brave. 
Without a murmur he is making his sacrifice that the coun- 
terfeit by which his brother was deceived may be exposed. 
It is for you and me to give him our moral backing with- 
out flinching and to bear his sufferings as bravely as he 
does himself. 

107 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Helen. I can't feel as you do. Vm young. I want 
life. 

Mrs. McConnell. What is life to you? 

Helen. It's something that sings and laughs. 

Mrs. McConnell. Laughter is not of today, but 
there can be song in suffering, mighty song. 

Helen. What is song without mirth? 

Mrs. McConnell. It may be the oratorio of a new 
creation. 

Mrs. Holden. That is how your soul is singing when 
you go to prison. I can see it in your eyes. 

Mrs. McConnell (speaking meditatively) . I'm go- 
ing into a strange, new life. I have no idea what it will 
be, but there must be work for me there besides the hard 
labor of the prison workroom. 

Mrs. Holden. I feel ashamed that I am not going 
with you. 

Mrs. McConnell. You are needed outside to pass 
the word along quietly. It wouldn't do for us all to be in 
prison. 

Mrs. Holden. Yours is the Spartan task. 

Mrs. McConnell. I know that life in prison is no bed 
of roses, but others have lived through it, I guess I can. 
The experience may be necessary to me. My faith is not 
so tranquil as yours. It requires continual renewal through 
inner struggle. 

Mrs. Holden. How could a jury be so warped as to 
convict a woman like you? 

Mrs. McConnell. I'm no different from hundreds 
of others who have fallen into the toils of war-time "jus- 



tice." 



Helen. A trial for sedition is a greased chute to 
prison it seems. 

108 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Mrs. McConnell. When the delusion of patriotism 
reaches Its zenith reason falls to Its abyss. 

Mrs. Holden. Do you remember the words of your 
judge about the divine right of country In that astonishing 
speech he made when he sentenced you? 

Mrs. McConnell. I have them down by heart. 
"Country exists by natural, divine right and Its authority 
to command Is of God. You have not considered suffi- 
ciently the religion of patriotism. You have been weighed 
In the balance of loyalty, patriotism and devotion to coun- 
try and found wanting. Therefore it is the judgment of 
this court that you be confined In the federal prison at 
hard labor for a term of ten years, etc., etc." 

Helen. Do you know what came into my mind when 
I heard him say those words to you ? 
. Mrs. McConnell. I hope you didn't condemn him 
In your heart. It's his religion. 

Helen. If It's his religion it doesn't set very heavy 
on him for you don't see him renouncing his proud seat 
on the bench for a bunk in a dugout. 

Mrs. Holden. I wanted to ask him myself why he 
remained so far from his country's battle front, but It 
didn't seem worth while to be arrested for contempt of 
court when my soul was so thoroughly guilty of such 
contempt. 

Helen. I was so filled with hatred for him sitting 
there rubbing his fat cheeks with his soft hands that I 
could have killed him. If Joseph and the rest of you ever 
succeed in making a revolutionist out of me, I warn you, 
I'll be a fiery one. I'll use the nearest weapons at hand 
and I'll strike for immediate results, not for some distant, 
hazy Utopia. For freedom I'll pay no less than the price 
of blood. 

109 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Mrs. McConnell. Some day the prostrate world 
will know that blood does not buy freedom. Some day 
humanity will rise in moral resurrection from this tomb of 
tradition. Then it will look back over history and see 
that only false or transitory ends have ever been gained 
by war. In America we boast of our freedom paid for 
by the blood of our forefathers in the revolution, but now 
in 1918 what is left of that freedom but shattered frag- 
ments? And look at poor France. Where is that virile 
spirit flown that once caused her to rise against the wrongs 
of the Bourbon monarchy? It could not transcend the 
blood streams of the guillotine. As a natural conse- 
quence of the violence of her revolution, France accepted 
the perfect imperialism of Napoleon from which she has 
never recovered physically or morally. 

Helen. What about Russia? 

Mrs. McConnell. Russia is the world's hope to- 
day, but let her guard well the fire within her own breast 
lest tomorrow she cease to be the great emancipator. If 
her vigorous industrial government becomes militarised it 
will inevitably lose its truly revolutionary character. The 
Russian revolution, like other revolutions, will succeed in 
inverse proportion to the bloodshed resorted to in pro- 
moting it. But whether the soviet system prevails or falls 
in Russia the new world order is being born in the cosmic 
throes which are now upon Russia. A new cycle of evolu- 
tion is manifesting itself in industrial upheavel, and every 
corner of the earth will be touched by it before the world 
is regenerated. 

Helen. According to what we read in the papers 
there is nothing going on in Russia but murder and 
plunder. 

Mrs. McConnell. That is all the capitalistic In- 

110 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

terests wish to see going on there. If it doesn't go on 
sufficiently to condemn sovletism In the eyes of the world, 
these Interests will see to It that it Increases. 

Mrs. Holden. Russia can't have outgrown patriot- 
Ism entirely or she would not be organizing a new army. 

Mrs. McConnell. If the Allies can bait her Into 
maintaining a strong army they can more easily destroy 
sovletism. Under military discipline the soviet state will 
necessarily take precedence of the soviet Idea, and a state 
Is more easily destroyed than an Idea. If they can draw 
her Into continued m.illtary defense she may forget her 
revolutionary Internationalism In a revival of elementary 
nationalism. 

Helen. The only angle of the war that I have any 
sym.pathy with Is the Bolshevik! defense. If I were a 
Russian I wouldn't hesitate to make use of a machine gun. 

Mrs. McConnell. Bullets can't defend ideas, for 
Ideas and lead have nothing in common. The only valid 
aggression or defense in the whole scheme of struggling 
nature is positive non-resistance. In plant growth It is 
the concentration of sap In the new shoots after the rav- 
ages of weather or the violent onslaughts of the pruning 
shears; In animal life It Is the prowess of sagacity as op- 
posed to fierceness, and In the human sphere It is the phil- 
osophy of the folded arms. The solidarity of a group 
which has the will and intelligence to remain inert till the 
moment arrives for concerted constructive action Is more 
powerful than the biggest and best equipped army that 
ever went out to fight. Without the spilling of any blood 
the Industries necessary to society could be taken over and 
controlled by the workers if the desire to do so were strong 
enough. The capitalist system is rotten to the core, and 
all that is needed to topple it over Is a non-resistant and 

111 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

irresistible will on the part of those who are exploited 
by it. 

Helen. Your remarks are out of season. Why 
should anybody want to overthrow such a beneficent sys- 
tem even if it is rotten? It not only gives us fixed stand- 
ards of respectability without which we would be floun- 
dering in hopeless vulgarity, but it offers such handsome 
opportunities for benevolence and philanthropy. Why, 
whole nations are moved to altruism by it. Didn't Eng- 
land enter the war for the sole purpose of defending the 
women and children of Belgium, and isn't America asking 
nothing in return for her gallant salvation of democracy? 
That England is incidentally starving a few million wo- 
men and children in the central nations and Russia, v/ith her 
economic blockade, only enhances her virtue, for by this 
method the produce of the earth falls exclusively upon the 
just — an improvement upon the profligacy of the Almighty 
who sends his rain upon the just and unjust. Though 
America is producing a large and lusty crop of blood 
profiteers, we need feel no shame, for it redounds mag- 
nificently to our national honor in the swelled treas- 
uries of our war charities. And when Germany vio- 
lated Belgium, invaded France and sank the Lusitania 
did she not do so "of necessity" in the interests of 
civilization? Why change a system that makes for 
such sublime self-abnegation that aviators, irrespective of 
nationality, are willing to risk their lives dropping bombs 
on school-houses and hospitals in the enemy border towns 
under the sworn oath that all reprisals shall be at the rate 
of ten to one? 

Mrs. Holden. Oh, these terrible years! Can the 
world ever forget them? 

Mrs. McConnell. The world mustn't forget them. 

112 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

The horror of them must be burned Into the conscious- 
ness of the race till war becomes repulsive even in historic 
perspective. I would be willing to spend the rest of my 
life in prison if I could by so doing help to lay the founda- 
tion stones for a universal strike against war and its ad- 
vance agent, preparedness for war. 

Helen. You can't, and you're throwing your life 
away trying to. People will always reverence war. Wait 
till the next "war to end war" comes along. You'll see 
the crowd running after its tinsel on parade with the 
same bleer-eyed lust as now. You'll hear the same sound- 
ing brass from the pulpits in the name of Christ, and 
from every house on your block the same syncopated 
strains of jazz patriotismi will vibrate in your window till 
you're forced either to join in the crazy tune or be damned 
by your own sanity. Yes, your noble humanity can't be 
happy without its occasional war spree and it will always 
be willing to die the fearful deaths of war for the pleasure 
it gets from war's perfect abandonment. You can't 
deny that in the last analysis humanity is essentially carnal. 

Mrs. Holden. Humanity is essentially spiritual. If 
it were not so It would not be able to produce one Con- 
scientious Objector, but every war has had its Isolated 
dissenters and this war has summoned thousands to pun- 
ishment for ideals. The power is latent In the breast of 
humanity to overcome the degeneracy of war. 

Helen. The superstition that war Is sublime sacrifice 
Is bred in the bone of the race. The old traditions of war 
heroism will always be stronger than the Impulse to real 
heroism can ever become. Take the women In this war 
for example, thousands of them, millions of them all 
over the world sitting knitting — knitting their brains out. 
Why? Not because they are supplying anything needed 

113 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

by the soldiers (the factories can manufacture knitted 
goods much more easily and satisfactorily) , but because It 
is a war tradition that women shall knit while men fight. 
' Mrs. Holden. I believe that women will be the 
first to see war in its true light, though they are the most 
deceived by it now. 

Helen. I doubt It when I see some of your famous 
pre-war pacifist women occupying themselves with the 
milder forms of war work such as food conservation with 
its corollary of enemy starvation. Oh, yes, war is very 
wrong and unnecessary In time of peace, but when the big 
horn begins to blovv^ then our peace societies and our anti- 
war periodicals suddenly discover that "This war is dif- 
ferent; this is a war for humanity, a righteous war, a 
war for world peace. So It Is now and so it ever shall be. 

Mrs. McConnell. We who know the truth about 
war can do but one thing — pledge our lives to the over- 
throwing of the evils that cause it. Capitalism and pa- 
triotism are the body and soul of war. 

Mrs. Holden. In the universal commune war will 
be an extinct phenomenon. 

Helen. Mother, you talk like Joseph. 

Mrs. Holden. Joseph has been my teacher since Mr. 
Thorp failed me. 

Helen {thoughtfully). Joseph, Joseph, if I could 
listen to you as a teacher I might become reconciled. 

Mrs. McConnell. His light will envelop you yet. 
I'm sure it will. 

Helen. It's too strong. It dazzles me. 

Mrs. Holden. Didn't you say that Sergeant Murry 
was coming for you at half past three? It's a quarter to 
four. 

Mrs. McConnell. Well, I'm in no hurry if he Isn't, 

114 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

though I'm all ready to go. I left some letters In the 
desk to be mailed after I'm safely locked up. 

Mrs. Holden. I'll not forget about them, and 
can't you think of anything else for me to do? I'm so 
afraid you've forgotten something. Are you sure you've 
attended to everything? 

Helen. Of course she has. She's not the woman to 
lose her head over a little thing like going to prison for 
ten years. 

Mrs. Holden. If I were of my old faith I'd say, 
"I'll pray for you," but prayer has a different meaning 
to me now. The war has taken away my glibness in 
offering prayer. I am dumb before the infinity of your 
Creative Principle and my Creator God. 

Mrs. McConnell. Sympathy is the essence of real 
prayer. You may pray for me on that basis for I'm sure 
of the potency of such prayer. 

Helen. Well, I can't deny that your religion of nat- 
ural spirituality gives my skepticism a jar when I see you 
going off to prison as if — (Door bell rings.) Oh, 
Mother, It's the officer to take her. ( Throws up her 
hands and covers her face in horror. Mrs. Holden 
opens the door to Sergeant Murry.) 

Sergeant Murry {entering quickly). Is Mrs. Mc- 
Connell ready? She's expecting me, I guess. 

Mrs. McConnell. Yes, you're late. I've been wait- 
ing for you. 

Sergeant Murry {rather gruffly). I know I'm late 
and we haven't got no time to waste. My Instructions is 
to bring you right along. 

Mrs. McConnell. My friends may go with me to 
the train, I suppose. 

Sergeant Murry. I don't care how many goes 

115 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

along if they'll behave thereselves. 

Mrs. McConnell. I'll put on my hat and be right 
out. (Goes to next roo^n. Helen follows.) 

Mrs. Holden {calling to Helen as she goes out). 
Bring my things, too, please. We must hurry. 

Sergeant Murry. Yes, you bet you must hurry. I 
can't wait a year. 

Mrs. Holden. Won't you sit down? 

Sergeant Murry. No, thanks. {Walks about the 
room rather impatiently, then leans against the table, 
thumping it nervously.) 

Mrs. Holden {who has seated herself, points to an 
easy chair near her and speaks graciously) . You'd better 
take this chair, sergeant, and rest a little. 

Sergeant Murry. All right. {Sits down.) 

Mrs. Holden. I suppose you're a very busy man. 

Sergeant Murry. Well, the sergeant of the war 
squad's not fooling away his time, I'll tell you that, with 
all the sedition that's floating around loose. 

Mrs. Holden. What is your special work, may I 
ask? 

Sergeant Murry {with an air of dignity). Slack- 
ers, pro-Germans, Pacifists, smugglers and wireless tap- 
pers. All such cases in this locality goes first through my 
hands for investigation. I make my reports direct to the 
Department of Justice. 

Mrs. Holden. Oh, that's the way we're classified, is 
it? How interesting. 

Sergeant Murry. Yes, ma'am. 

Mrs. Holden. Do you enjoy these investigations? 
I'm quite anxious to know. 

Sergeant Murry. I'm proud to be serving the gov- 
ernment. Who wouldn't be? 

116 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

Mrs. Holden. You think It right to send people 
like Mrs. McConnell to jail? 

Sergeant Murry. Well, I guess she wouldn't be 
going there if she hadn't broke the law, would she? The 
law's got to be enforced alike for everybody. If anyone 
ain't a law abidin' citizen they've got to go to jail and 
there's no two ways about it. Law is law. 

Mrs. Holden. What about the higher law? 

Sergeant Murry. Ain't the federal law the highest 
there is? 

Mrs. Holden. It seems to me that the federal law 
has fallen very low when citizens are forbidden to express 
their honest opinions on public questions as provided in 
the constitution. 

Sergeant Murry. Well, if you don't like the laws 
of this country all I can say is you'd better get out. 

Mrs. Holden. I was born in this country and so 
were my ancestors for ten or more generations. It is my 
privilege to criticize the government as much as I please 
and the government has no right to stop me. 

Sergeant Murry. It isn't for nobody outside the 
government to say what the government's got a right to 
do. The government's boss and you nor nobody can't get 
around it. 

Mrs. Holden. It was intended that the people 
should be boss. 

Sergeant Murry. Maybe onst, but when there's 
war there's got to be discipline. It's different now from 
what it was before the war. 

Mrs. Holden. I should say it is. Power has made 
the government drunk. 

Sergeant Murry. Lady, I'm sergeant of the war 
squad of this city, sworn to do my duty and I'll do it. You 

117 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

better be careful. I tell you right here that I'll have no 
disrespectful words spoke against the government in my 
presence even if I am sitting down in your house. 

Mrs. Holden {unabashed, speaking good-naturedly). 
From whom do you get your authority, sergeant? 

^Sergeant Murry. From the government. 

Mrs. Holden. Who is the government? 

Sergeant Murry. Well, I guess the president's 
somebody. 

Mrs. Holden. But isn't the president elected by the 
people ? 

Sergeant Murry. The people maybe elects the 
president but after he's elected it's him that tells the peo- 
ple where to get off at. 

Mrs. Holden. And they proceed to get off where 
he tells them. That's the discouraging part. On the 
other hand, he is bound by existing conditions to get off 
sooner or later where Wall Street tells him to. The 
people must reject this usurpation of their authority if we 
are ever to be a free country again. 

Sergeant Murry. Anarchists like you hadn't ought 
to be allowed loose, but if they start anything they'll find 
the government's ready for them. 

Mrs. Holden. I doubt if the government is ready 
for a spiritual uprising of the people. 

Sergeant Murry. So you're a spiritualist? That's 
all damned nonsense. You think the governm.ent's afraid 
of spooks, do you? 

Mrs. Holden. No, but I wouldn't be surprised to 
see the government in its present form fade away into the 
realm of spooks after a while. I'm looking for a world 
revolution, you know. 

Sergeant Murry. Well, maybe you'll be on the 

118 



THE JAZZ OF PATRIOTISM 

inside looking out yourself some day if you keep on. 
(Mrs. McConnell and Helen come in ready to go. 
Helen helps her mother quickly to put on her coat and 
hat while Sergeant Murry waits impatiently by the 
door.) Hurry up! I can't wait a year. 

Mrs. Holden. Yes, we're coming. 

Helen {picking up Mrs. McConnell's traveling 
bag). I'll carry this. 

Mrs. McConnell. All right, but don't forget to 
give it to me when I get on the train, for it's all the 
worldly goods I'm taking with me. My new clothes are 
waiting for me there. 

Mrs. Holden. Oh, this is too terrible. To see you 
off to prison — a woman like you. 

Helen. The whole world's in prison. 

Mrs. McConnell. I never felt freer in my life. 

Mrs. Holden. That's because you're bearing wit- 
ness before the world that the war is a lie. 

Mrs. McConnell. The witness of forced silence. 

Helen. Gagged for telling the truth. 

Mrs. Holden. But gagged and silent her living tes- 
timony will be heard when the loud-mouthed rantings of 
today are still. 

Sergeant Murry {opening the door). Come along. 
No more stalling around. Step lively. {All go out.) 

The End 



119 



